Help! I'm Stuck in a Self Insert Fic!
by Super Hyper Mario 128 III
Summary: I, Matthew, have become that which I have previously mocked: a furry of myself trapped in the Sonic universe! Oh joy. Now, I gotta join forces with others who have met the same fate, stop a diabolical, if cliche, plot, and find a way home! Easy, right?
1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note: Wow, my first new, non-holiday fanfic in about three years. Exciting. Now, I normally put author notes like this at the _end_ of the chapter, but there's something I wanna let everyone know before they start reading. The protagonist of this story (Matt) is NOT me! While we do share a couple of traits, he still has some vastly different views from my own. One of these is his opinion on self-insert fics, which obviously plays a huge role in this story. To make the plot a _lot_ more interesting, I made him absolutely _hate_ such stories (it's called dramatic irony). I, on the other hand, fully respect an author's desire if he or she wants to stick him or herself in another universe (especially if it is well-writen). The point I'm getting at here: Please don't flame _me_ if you don't like _Matt's_ view about such fanfics. He's a fictional character who does NOT share my views on self-insert fics! Now that that's out of the way, let's begin...**

_It started out like any ordinary day. I had invited two of my friends over to play the multiplayer minigames in Sonic and the Secret Rings when, all of the sudden, a huge vortex opened up in front of the TV and sucked us all in! "AHHH!!!" we all screamed before everything went black. When we came to, I was a hedgehog, and my two friends were a fox and an echidna! "Guys," I said, "I think we're inside the game!"_

_OMGosh! We're in Sonic's world! What will happen to us now? Leave me a review and I'll update!_

I lolled my head back and let out a huge sigh. Not another one of _these_ fanfics again! Doesn't anyone ever get a clue that the ol' "Oh noes! We're trapped in the game's universe!" gambit is neither cool _nor_ original?

Don't get me wrong, pulling such a fic off _can _be done, but this... _thing _violated every rule in the book quicker than Michael Jackson at a day care center. Rule #1: Thou shall not have thy video game system of choice 'suck' thyself into the game. Rule #2: If thou in the Sonic universe, thou shall not turn into either hedgehog, fox, or echidna, for it is unoriginal. Rule #3: Thou shall not immediately realize that thou is in previously stated universe right off the bat, as thou is not that intelligent. Rule #4: Thou shall not call a single paragraph a 'chapter' for it is an insult to those who actually put _effort_ into their updates. Rule #5: See rules one through four. Rule #6:... You get the idea.

I promptly decided not to waste anymore time (or brain cells) on this sludge and made my way towards the 'Back' button at the top of the screen. Normally I'd comply with their request and leave them a 'review' (read: flame), but I was feeling generous today, so I spared them. Meanwhile, I continued my search to find a halfway decent narrative on before giving up for the evening.

"Honey! Time for dinner!"

Scratch that. Looks like I have to stop now, having nothing on my mind except that emotionally scarring bile that somehow managed to be classified as a story.

"Um... Sure thing! Coming, Mom!"

I closed out of the website and made my way out of my room, down the stairs, and into the kitchen, where my mother had just finished setting everything up on the table. My dad and my sister were already there, so I decided to seat myself down at my usual spot near the table. Thankfully, despite the absolutely nauseating effects that story could've had on me, I still managed to maintain my appetite for dinner. Good thing, too: it was ravioli!

What? I'm part Italian, so sue me.

I suppose you guys might be wondering about my hastily-introduced family here. My dad runs his own business that is pretty successful, but he isn't exactly what I'd call a spender, so we live in a generic, but otherwise nice house in the suburbs rather than some huge, gigantic mansion I'm sure we could probably afford. It doesn't bother me, though, since the house we do have is filled with enough high-end appliances to make Bill Gates jealous (okay, that's an exaggeration... that guy's got a heated driveway, for cryin' out loud!). This includes a personal computer and TV for my room, meaning that I theoretically don't have to leave it for any reason other than for food and school. Emphasis on the word 'theoretically', mind you, as I am usually dragged out of it to do other things, like (gag me) piano lessons and football.

Look, football is fine and all to _watch_, but I have no desire to make a living getting physically assaulted by a group of heavily armored musclemen, okay?

As for my mom... She's a housewife. Now, I know that such things are uncommon in today's society, where the mom usually works because she has to (family needs the cash) or because she wants to (as part of the feminist movement or whatever), but my mom considers watching over the two of us as a 'full-time job'. I'm still trying to figure out if that is a compliment or an insult.

Finally, there's my sister, Ashley. I have officially dubbed her 'Princess Ashe' because of her unusual obsession with RPGs, regardless of the fact that she's only twelve and thus should not be able to understand any of the subplots. Inexplicitly, she managed to figure out Cloud and Zack's backstory in _FFVII_ before I even could, and she was _eight_ then. Of course, my mom happened to walk in right as Zack was meeting his untimely demise, freaked out, and now has the game hidden away until she turns thirteen. Thank goodness I'm not a fan of _GTA_...

Me? I'm Mathew, or Matt for short. I'm a sixteen-year-old high schooler just going through the motions in my rinky-dinky little private school. Yes, our 'gymnasium' and 'auditorium' is interchangeable and we hardly have enough money to afford common luxuries such as _heating_ (one time, a toilet exploded in the girls' room during the winter and it turned into a miniature ice rink overnight...), but we've got it where it counts, I suppose. Anyway, when I'm not doing schoolwork or hanging out with my friends, I'm usually either playing with my Wii (get yer mind outta the gutter, sickos!) or working on the computer, plugging away at the next great American novel... or, at least, one of my fanfictions.

Now that all the introductions are out of the way, let's move on, shall we?

"Anything exciting happen in school today?" my dad inquired, sprinkling a little parmesan on his ravioli (as if it needed any more cheese).

"Well..." I began, shoving a whole ravioli in my mouth, "our math teacher ran out of dry-erase markers to use on the whiteboard, so he had to resort to using a highlighter."

"Isn't that the second time this month?" my sis interrupted.

"Yeah... Our school isn't exactly big on supplies... Oh, and I got clobbered in the face with a dodge ball."

"Goodness!" my mom shrieked, "Are you alright!?"

"Heh... Obviously. Otherwise, I wouldn't be here!" I joked, "Seriously though... I'm fine. Really. Physical sports just aren't my thing, I guess."

We continued to eat a bit more before my mom started talking again.

"Do you have any homework tonight?"

"Nope, just one English assignment that isn't due until next Monday. That's no biggie."

"Of course, you think that tests are 'no biggie'..." Ashley quipped.

"Well, exuuuuuse me, Princess Ashe," I teased.

"And stop calling me 'Princess Ashe'! It's not funny!"

"Aw, come on... It's not like you aren't obsessed enough with RPGs..."

"Oh, and what about _you_? All you talk about is Sonic!"

"... And Mario," I added, "and Link, and virtually any other character to grace a Nintendo system."

"But still, it's mostly Sonic."

"True."

At this point, I finished up my ravioli, so I took my plate to the sink and headed back up into my room. While I was ascending the stairs, I heard my mom call to me.

"You might want to at least look over that English assignment once, anyway!"

"Yes, Mom..." I mumbled. She doesn't let _anything_ slip by in the way of schoolwork.

Once back in my room, I plopped down on my bed and turned on the TV to discover that the nightly news was just starting. Normally, I wouldn't care less about the news, as all they usually do is start by saying, "good evening" and then proceed to tell you why it _isn't_. However, the first story caught my attention.

"I'm here at Sixty-Fourth Street," the on-site reporter began, motioning to the darkened house behind her, "where another child has mysteriously disappeared last night, making him the thirteenth in as many days.

"Police are baffled by this haunting series of disappearances. All the vanishings happen in exactly the same way: their parents claim that their child goes to bed the night before, but in the morning, they are simply gone; no signs of break-in or struggle. In fact, the beds of the children are even made, as if the children were not sleeping in them to begin with.

"As I've previously stated, this is the thirteenth time this has happened. These disappearances have occurred all over the country, from California to Maine, and even in Hawaii on one occasion. So far, ten of the children were not even in their teens when they vanished, and the remaining three were fourteen, fifteen, and seventeen, respectively. Furthermore, only one so far has been female; the rest have all been boys. Police around the country have asked that anyone with any information on any of the kidnappings please contact them at 555-TIPS. All calls will be confidential. This is Mary Anderson, Channel 4 News."

I quickly turned the TV off after that. Kids disappearing all over the country? Creepy. Normally, I'd just say that they all sneaked out during the night in a pitiful attempt to generate some free publicity, but something about this... didn't seem right. You'd think _one_ of them would turn themselves in after a few days, right? Murders, kidnappings, and burglaries in the news normally don't score all that high on my 'Give a Crud' meter (I suppose I could thank _CSI_ for that), but something about this really disturbed me.

Suddenly, doing that English assignment seemed like a valuable alternative in my mind. At least it would take my mind off this creep-fest.

I dug through my backpack until I managed to pull out my English binder. After shifting through a nearly endless number of previously-written essays, vocab lists, and reading comprehension questions for _Our Town_ (dullest. play. ever.), I finally found my current assignment.

Oh joy, it's creative writing. Where they ask you to write what's in _your_ heart and then grade you down for not answering the way _they_ want you to. After rolling my eyes at the oxymoron that is more commonly known as the assignment's title, I looked over the prompt:

_If you could live in any fictional world of your choosing, what would it be and why? Please make your answer at least five paragraphs long and explain your reasoning thoroughly._

Well, at least the subject's interesting. What fictional world would I want to live in? That's a tricky one. Sometimes, I feel like the world I'm living in _now_ is stranger than fiction.

Eh, screw it. All Mom wanted me to do was look it over once. Well, I did, and that's all I'm gonna do.

I tossed the sheet aside and walked back over to the computer. I still had a couple of hours before bedtime (no, I don't still have a set bedtime; it was a school night, and I prefer to get to bed at a semi-decent hour so I'm not a brain-dead zombie in the morning), so I decided to continue my epic search for a partway respectable fanfiction in the Sonic community. No such luck, as it turned out. Two hours later, the closest I got to a good story was one where the 'anthro-ed' author took a whole three days since she entered Sonic's world before she was able to make-out with Shadow. Look, just because _you_ love that angst-ball doesn't mean _he'll_ immediately fall for you, okay? Reality check: no one falls in love that easily. Take it from me; the closest I got to having a crush on someone was thinking that Midna was a little cute.

Well, okay, Peach isn't that bad, either. And Samus is kinda hot, too, but she'd probably blast your head off if you asked her out on a date.

Of course, the _really_ sad thing is the fact that I don't have a _real_ girlfriend. I guess I'm just afraid of committing to anyone until the person I _know_ is the right one comes around. There's gotta be someone for everyone out there, right?

Bah, why am I talking about my (lack of) love life, anyway? I gotta focus on more important things right now, like finding a fanfic that doesn't make my eyes bleed. Alas, it was not meant to be. Disgusted, I went back to my homepage, which, at a total lack of better options, was a news site.

What? It's easier than going on the Wii's News Channel, although I love mindlessly spinning that globe around and watching the pretty pictures move.

Anyway, as I looked that the leading headline, I realized that irony knew no bounds: it was about that same, creepy kidnapping spree going around. Oddly enough, I found myself clicking on the headline, even though I already knew (and dreaded) what it was going to say. However, there was a difference between this and the news program's report: this one had a list of the names of the missing children. I don't know why, but I began looking over the entire list, memorizing the names of the kids. I guess... I guess I really felt for them or something.

What the heck is wrong with me? I _never_ got this emotional over any news story before, so why is this one bugging me so dang much?

I glanced over at my desk clock: 10:00 PM. Wonderful. I needed to get to bed, or else I'd _really_ regret it in the morning (let's just say that the consequences usually involved me falling asleep in my cereal...). Thankfully, having a computer in my room means that I'm literally a foot away from my bed, so I got up, took about three steps, and threw myself onto an array of pillows and blankets. After managing to get under the covers and turning off the light on my nightstand, all that was left for me to do was get to sleep. Unfortunately, that chilling news story was still on my mind; I had to find something else to think about, or I'd definitely wind up with a nasty case of insomnia.

My mind eventually drifted back to that essay question. _What fictional world would I want to live in? _Hmm... Well, RPG worlds are usually pretty cool, but they always tend to be doomed to a quick, flashy destruction. What about Hyrule? Naw, not high-tech enough (although, that Clawshot is a pretty darn cool piece of equipment). Mushroom Kingdom? Now, that's making some progress, but...

Ah ha! Of course! Mobius! Sonic's home world! That place is awesome! Of course, that begs the question of _which_ Mobius I'd be talking about... Would it be the goofy, off-the-wall, all-logic-out-the-window Mobius in that Sonic cartoon or the dead serious, post-apocalyptic, Freedom Fighter's Mobius of the comics? And we can't forget that crazy anime movie... And what about the games that started them all? Maybe it would be a combination of all of them? Well, I guess it really wouldn't matter, as long as Sonic's there! Heh, maybe I'd be able to meet him!

Oh gosh.

I'm starting to sound like one of those authors.

That's when I realized the problem: Forget trying to figure out where I'd want to live, how could I possibly write this essay without it turning into a dreaded 'self-insert' story? Granted, I don't think my teacher would care at all (she probably wouldn't even notice, unless she actually looks at fanfiction, which I seriously doubt) but how am I supposed to write about something if I know it's gonna turn into what I commonly criticize!?

No, sorry, I just can't do it. Mobius, you'd be an awesome place to live, but I'm not putting you in my essay. I just can't take the risk.

This was what I fell asleep thinking about.


	2. Chapter 2

**Author's Note: Normally, I'm not a big fan of disclaimers. As far as I'm concerned, I think it's pretty obvious that I do not own Sonic, Mobius, etc. and that they belong to SEGA. However, I figured that I should let everyone know that I came up with all the characters that show up in this chapter. Sure, I had a little help in the species department (commonly known as the Anthro section on DeviantART), but I made up their names, appearances, and personalities all by myself. Any similarities to other fancharacters, living or dead, is completely coincidental.**

I woke up to the sounds of birds chirping and a soft breeze blowing across my face.

Hey, wait a second here... Last time I checked, it was the dead of winter. All the birds are down south, and I'd have to be downright insane to have the window open to let a breeze in! It's been below freezing for the past week!

I tried to open my eyes, only to immediately slam them shut again to keep out the sudden bombardment of sunlight, something that would be normal except for the fact that my bedroom window is on the _back_ wall, behind my bed. There was no way the light could be shining in my face!... Unless some idiot put a strobe light at the foot of my bed, which was only _slightly_ out of the realm of the logical. Undaunted, I proceeded to raise my hand in front of my face, blocking out the sunlight so I could open my eyes and see what the flip was going on.

I opened my eyes, all right. And when I did, they got about as big as saucer plates: my outstretched hand and arm were completely covered in grey fur.

I immediately jumped up... Maybe a little too fast, as all the blood suddenly rushed out of my brain. Losing my balance, I frantically grabbed for something to brace my self up against. The first thing I found was a huge tree.

Hold on... A _tree_? Yep. After I managed to regain some of my composure, I took a moment to actually observe where the heck I was: it appeared to be some sort of wooded area. It looked like I was in a small clearing, the gap in the treetops above allowing the morning light to filter in. Apparently, the tree I was now leaning on was the one I was sleeping against just a few moments before.

What the flippin' heck!? Where'd my room go!? Last thing I knew, I was going to sleep in my own home! How on earth did I wind up in a forest!?

My mind rushed back to the news story from the night before. Didn't all the other kids who vanished also disappear while they were sleeping? No... Snap outta it, Matt! This has gotta be something different!

I then remembered that randomly being in the woods wasn't the only thing that was all outta whack here. I glanced downward at myself and noticed that my entire body was covered in the same grey fur as my arm was. Also, I think I was a little bit shorter than normal.

Yeah... Like any of this would be considered normal!

My eyes darted around until I noticed a very tranquil-looking pool of water a short distance away. Normally, I don't consider reflections in the water to be all that good, but I really didn't care at the moment: I needed to know what I looked like. I ran over to the water's edge and looked down at my reflection.

It wasn't me that was staring back.

Rather, it was an animal. Literally.

I was covered from head to toe with thick, grey fur. My hands and feet had short, but sharp looking claws coming out of them, and I noticed that I had a tail... a freakin' tail! Also, I was right in thinking that I was shorter; I couldn't have been more than three feet tall!

The biggest shock, however, was the face. I now had a snout protruding out from the lower half of my face, with a round, black nose on the very end. My mouth was full of razor-sharp incisors, apparently taking veggies off my diet. Furthermore, my ears were no longer on the sides of my head, but rather sticking up off the top. There was no denying it: I had been turned into a walking, talking wolf!

At this point, I think my brain snapped.

One normally cannot remember much of what happens when they snap (common excuse for the criminally insane, I know), but I vaguely recall frantically trying to wake myself up from this presumed nightmare. I think that involved pinching myself, slamming my head against a tree, and biting on my recently discovered tail. This tangent ultimately ended with me throwing myself into the lake, hoping that the water would wake me up.

Of course, it didn't.

Great. Just great. This isn't a dream, I'm in the middle of some random forest, I have a whacked-out case of lycanthropy, _and_ I smell like a wet dog. Wonderful.

I dragged myself out of the lake and, almost instinctively, shook all the water off my fur. Okay, so I've confirmed that this is as real as it gets, but now what am I gonna do? Sit here and twiddle my thumbs? Naw, I gotta take initiative. I have to find my way out of this forest and find some sort of civilization.

Wait a moment... I can't show myself like this! Assuming I didn't get a chest-full of silver bullets, I'd probably get sent off to Area 51 or something! Step 1: Stop being all wolf-y. Step 2: Find help... But how on earth am I supposed to lose the fur, the tail, and the claws, and then grow two feet taller? I didn't even know how I turned into this to begin with! Aren't paradoxes fun?

Anyway, I eventually decided that sitting around was the worst thing I could be doing at the moment, so I looked around for anything that could possibly resemble a pathway of some sort. I didn't have to look for long, actually: I spotted a small opening in the trees a short distance off. It certainly didn't look like a marked path, but the branches were noticeably parted away and the grass below seemed pressed down. At least _some_one must have used it before. At a total lack of better options, I made my way down the not-so-beaten path.

* * *

To say that I spent a while tracking this path would be an understatement. I couldn't have been following the stupid thing for less than two hours. All the while, my newly acquired abundance of chest (and back, and leg, and...) hair was getting tangled up in bushes, branches, and other lovely things. My tail didn't get off much better, either. My fifth appendage seemed to have a mind of its own, and it insisted on wrapping itself around tree trunks until I forcibly pulled it off.

As I continued my trudge through the forest, I began humming just about every song I could think of to keep myself from going (even more) insane. This included: the theme of _Super Mario Bros. 3_, the theme of Green Hill Zone, the theme of the _Viewtiful Joe_ anime, _One Wing Angel_, _Simple and Clean_, and... _Jumpin' Jack Flash_.

Hey, you go play the final level of _Elite Beat Agents_ on the 'Hard Rock' difficulty level. That song will haunt you forever, too.

I made my way a short distance further before I suddenly stopped dead in my tracks. The path I was following now led down the side of a hill, so I was able to overlook the valley below me. At the base of the said valley, I spotted a single plume of smoke. Now, I'm no Boy Scout (I could never pass the knot-tying test), but it didn't take a genius to figure out that the smoke _had_ to be coming from a campfire! It was civilization! Throwing my caution to the wind, I ran down the hill as fast as I could... tripped, and somersaulted the rest of the way down. Ow... Anyway, after recovering, I continued my pursuit of the fire and, hopefully, rescue. Once I walked a few more yards, my nose started picking up the scent of something cooking.

Huh? Hold on... I wasn't _that_ close to the fire yet. How could I already be smelling whatever was on it?

That's when I remembered my _other_ predicament. Wolves, like any other dog, have a really powerful nose. I could go into a detailed comparison between a human's sense of smell and a dog's sense of smell, but I don't feel like boring you with that, so go bug a biology teacher or something if you wanna know more. For now, the thing _I _was more worried about was the fact that I hadn't exactly found a way to become human again. Assuming I was, indeed, a werewolf, why the heck was I one when it was daytime, let alone whether it was a full moon or not? Maybe it was some sort of reverse-lycanthropy: I was only human when there _was_ a full moon.

Naw, that just sounds like the plot of some cheesy anime.

Oh yeah, I so totally went there.

At any rate, I made my way cautiously closer to the fire's source, preparing to bolt at any moment in case Van Helsing (or, knowing my luck, Buffy Summers) came outta nowhere and tried to kick my butt. Thankfully, this was not the case. Soon, I found myself on a slightly more worn path where the grass was actually replaced with dirt. A short while longer, and I found my source of the fire... and a whole lot more.

I was expecting the fire to be a... well, you know... a campfire, and find, at the most, a couple of hikers who would probably freak out the minute they saw me. I expected wrongly (yes, that is _too_ a word!). Instead, I found myself looking at an entire village! There were fourteen wooden huts, seven on each side of the 'street' (the dirt path in the middle). In the center of the 'street' was a rather large bonfire, with a pot of something boiling above it. Despite all of this, I was immediately drawn to one thing: all the inhabitants of this village were animals, just like me!

This discovery caused my confidence to skyrocket. I wasn't the only one who was a freakish half-breed around here! I guess I got a little overconfident, though. I began running towards the village, only to slam dead-on into another person! He certainly wasn't a weakling, either: Newton's Second Law of Physics kindly repaid me by knocking me backwards, causing me to fall over and land right on my tail.

I looked up at my new acquaintance from my rather embarrassing position on the ground. He was a little taller than me; I'd say about three inches. His head was about the same shape as mine, only his snout was a little shorter and his nose wasn't as big. His body was somewhat lean in his chest and waist area, but widened a bit near his legs. He also had a tail, like me, but it was less poofy and more muscular. Finally, his fur was dominantly a light brown, almost white color, with a few stripes of dark brown across his body. I'm not exactly an animal expert, but my guess was that he in the raccoon/weasel/ferret family. As far as accessories went, he had very little except a pair of hiking boots, fingerless gloves and a satchel hanging at his waist.

"Whoa, mate, slow down!" He said with a _very_ slight Australian accent. I know most people tend to think of Australians as being hyperactive middle-aged men with ridiculous accents (i.e.: Steve Iwrin, God bless his soul), but the person in front of me knocked that stereotype a few notches down. He sounded much younger, somewhere in his late teens, and, as I said before, his accent wasn't blatantly obvious. You know that blond guy in _House_, the show with the gimpy doctor? He sounded a bit like that.

"Oh, heh heh... Sorry," I mumbled, rubbing my sore... tail, "I guess I wasn't watching where I was going..."

He responded by extending his hand to help me up. I gratefully obliged to the offer.

"Eh, don't worry about it," he replied, hoisting me back up to my feet, "it happens all the time, believe it or not. So, what's your name?"

"Um... Matthew," I answered, "and yours?"

"Nathaniel. But please, just call me Nate."

Nathaniel? Where have I heard that name before? Wasn't he one of the...

"So, where are you from?" Nate inquired, "This place is kinda out of the way. Are you a traveler?"

Awkward silence. What was I gonna say? _"Well, I just sorta woke up this morning as a wolf in the middle of the forest and I somehow made my way over here..."_ Yeah, that would go over well. They'd probably think I'm crazy! I'd wind up in a hut with padded walls!

Nate seemed to notice the rather perplexed look on my face. Wonderful. Now he'd be skeptical no matter what I said.

"Hold on..." Nate interrupted, abruptly ending my train of thought, "Did you just happen to wake up this morning as what you are and are not sure how you got here?"

My mouth dropped open enough to probably let flies in.

"Wait... But... How did you?..." I stammered.

Nate let out a quiet laugh before continuing. Apparently, he got a bit of a kick out of my confusion. Sadist.

"Welcome to the club," Nate greeted, holding out his hand, "we're all in the same boat here. Everyone in this village has the same story: we went to sleep in our own homes as humans, and we woke up here as furries."

That's when it hit me like a 2x4: Nathaniel Williams... He was one of the people who disappeared! I knew I heard his name somewhere before; he was on that list I saw online!

At this point, a few of the other 'villagers' had come up to give me their warmest welcome as well. While Nate was clearly the seventeen-year-old they mentioned in the news report (his physical build and demeanor were big tip-offs), everyone else welcoming me definitely fit the description of an 'Ankle Biter'. I suddenly found myself being bombarded by a small group of pre-teen animals, none of which could have been more than two feet tall.

"Wow..." gasped a short, pudgy mouse, "He's so _big_."

"Yeah, so?" retorted a feisty looking tiger cub, pitifully attempting to look tough, "I bet I could take him down!"

"Hey, guys, easy now! The guy's just got here!" Nate requested, "Come on, go back to what you were doing, I want to show him around a bit."

Almost immediately, all the little squirts ran off to do their own thing, which impressed me quite a bit. I could never get kids to listen to me. After one week of supervising a bunch of little brats at a summer camp, I promptly concluded that keeping them under control was impossible. I won't get into details, but let's just say it involved my underwear, poison ivy, and a whole lot of Preparation H.

Now that you have that lovely image in your head, let's continue. Nate led me through the village, pointing out each hut and naming who resided in each. As we reached the other end, I looked back at the village and then turned to him.

"So... Did you guys build this whole place? I mean, I just can't figure out how you and ten kids could build this place."

Nate shrugged. Not a good sign.

"You're not gonna believe this, but I found this village just the way it is the first day I wound up here!"

"Huh? What do you mean?"

He sighed before continuing.

"I was the first one who was sent here. I can't even begin tell you how freaky that was. It took me five hours wondering around in the woods before I found this place; completely deserted, and let me tell you, that first night, just randomly choosing one of those huts to sleep in and praying to God that I wouldn't be killed by something in bed... I still get shivers about it. Thankfully, by the time I woke up the next morning, one of the kids was wandering outside the village. Poor guy was crying for his mom... Anyway, that pattern continued. Every day, another person would come wandering into this village, asking us where they were and what happened to them. None of us knew, or know now, for that matter, but what we did know that our odds would be best if we stuck together."

"Wow..." was all I could manage to get out (lame, I know), "You've got a heck of a lot of leadership ability, Nate. I mean, _I _could never get a bunch of crying kids to work together!"

Nate chuckled at the remark. This guy sure liked to laugh.

"My dad's a project manager and my mom's a school principal. You could say that keeping things from blowing up in my face runs in my blood. That, and I've always been told that I act _way_ too mature for my age. Of course, I just always thought that all my peers just acted too _im_mature... At any rate, I was good at rallying the troops, but I had no idea how to live in a forest, even with this village as a very useful crutch. This lead to some... _interesting_ complications during the first few days. For instance, when forging for food, some of the kids accidentally ate something that disagreed with them, which left them incapacitated for the entire day, complaining about stomach pains. We couldn't get that bonfire going during the first couple of days, either. It was clear that we needed someone with survival skills to help us out. Thankfully, a few days later, we got him."

Nate walked over to one of the huts and knocked gently on the door.

"Hey! Shaun! Get out here! I need to introduce ya to the new guy!"

"We _always_ have a new guy..." came a mumbled reply from inside, "... Erm, hold on! I'm coming! Just give me a second!"

I heard a bit of a commotion inside before the door to the hut swung open to reveal... Oh, deer.

No, really, it was a deer.

'Shaun' was about an inch or so shorter than me as far as head-to-head comparisons were concerned, but his antlers, although not fully grown, gave him a bit of an edge, technically making him about half-an-inch _taller_ than me. He had chocolate brown fur all over his body, except for on his chest and his lower jaw, which was a lighter shade of brown. Oddly enough, although his feet were hoofed like a normal deer's, he had actual hands (not that I should be talking; wolves shouldn't exactly have opposable thumbs, either). He only had one article of clothing: a brown vest that practically blended in with his fur, kinda ruining any aesthetic purpose of the thing.

"Okay, introductions..." Nate began, "Shaun, this is Matt. Matt, this is Shaun. Shaun's our resident Boy Scout here. Says he got the Eagle Scout Award at age twelve, so it's needless to say that we're really fortunate to have him around, right?"

"Yep!" Shaun replied, giving a military salute, "Shaun McConnor at your service!"

Well, he certainly was an energetic nerd.

"So..." I inquired, "What do you do around here, exactly?"

"Oh, many things..." he responded, beginning to count off on his fingers, "I keep the bonfire lit, I scout around near the village for signs of wildlife, I make sure what we bring in to eat isn't gonna kill us... You know, all that good stuff. In fact..."

Shaun reached into his shirt pocket and pulled out a small handful of berries.

"When Nate called me out here, I was in the process of inspecting these berries he found earlier today. You hungry?"

It was at that point that I suddenly realized I had not eaten anything since I grew fur. Sure, wolves are normally meat eaters, but dang, I was _famished_. I immediately reached out to grab some, but Shaun withdrew his open palm and pocketed the berries again.

"Well, that's too bad. They're from a mistletoe, you know, like the kind you hang up around Christmastime. These things are _very_ poisonous, so you'll have to eat something else."

"Wha?..." I sputtered, "Why'd ya show 'em to me then!? I'm starving!"

"Hey, relax," Shaun laughed, "it's just a joke. Right, Nate?"

"Yeah..." Nate murmured, "Except that you tend to forget that no one likes it."

"Look," I interrupted, "now that Shaun has managed to make me hungry, do you guys have any _real_ food around here?"

"Well, every day, one of us goes out in the morning to forge for food," Nate explained, "not any of the younger kids, of course... Anyway, she should be back pretty soon."

I smiled and nodded... Until the inevitable delayed reaction kicked in.

"Wait a second... _She_?"

"Yeah, 'she'..." came a very much female voice, "And 'she' is standing right behind you."

I whirled around, expecting to see some dainty animal that is usually associated with girls, like a cat or something. Well, just imagine my surprise when I found myself eyeball-to-eyeball with... a _lizard_?

No joke. Standing before me was a lizard, almost exactly my size, with aquamarine scales that seemed to glisten in the sunlight. She had a single row of spines that went from the tip of her curved tail, up her entire back, and over the top of her head. I guess this 'Mohawk' was as close as a species that didn't have fur could get to a hairstyle...

Oh, and she had something else that no one else had: _clothes_. I didn't really notice it before but, as far as everyone else was concerned, fur was enough of a covering that they didn't really need anything else (Shaun's dorky vest notwithstanding). However, the girl before me obviously had no fur, so to maintain her decency she had a deep blue tank top and ripped denim jeans that cut off around the ankle. Also, she had a pair of black... um... Mickey Mouse shoes? I dunno, they looked kinda big... Anyway, her only other accessories were a pair of bracelets and a dog collar. Actually, she looked kinda cute... Except for the fact that, you know, she wasn't _human_.

"Hiya," she greeted, holding out her right hand, "the name's Elizabeth."

"Oh! Erm... Hi!" I stammered, promptly shaking her hand (I was never good around girls, what can I say?), "I'm Matt. So, er... Elizabeth, huh?"

"Yeah, but you can call me 'Liz' if ya want... But no 'Liz the lizard' jokes, _please_! I've heard them all!"

Afterwards, she withdrew her handshake and walked over to Shaun. I had noticed that, under her left arm, she was carrying a woven basket full of forest vegetation. When she approached the nerdy deer, she handed the basket to him.

"Here, ya go, Shaun! One forest salad to go! Make sure I didn't put anything deadly in there, would ya?"

"Sure thing, Liz," Shaun replied, shifting through the basket, "let's see... Blueberries, some tree nuts... Hey, Matt! Catch!"

Now, I never had very good reactions, especially when it came to catching things (which would explain my five errors per game or more in my ill-advised stint with Little League), so it was little surprise for me when I turned toward the Boy Scout just in time to get an apple thrown at my face, bounce off my muzzle with an almost humorous 'thud!', and land on the ground at my feet.

"Oops... Sorry..." Shaun apologized, "You were supposed to catch that..."

"Eh, no problem..." I grunted, reaching down and grabbing the apple, "The only sport I was ever good at was dodgeball since it involved _avoiding_ the ball rather than catching it."

I proceeded to bite into the apple and began chewing on it. Actually, despite the fact that a carnivore's teeth are all meant for tearing meat, I had little trouble eating the veggie (or is it a fruit?... Has anyone figured that one out yet?). Regardless, I was just happy to finally have something in my stomach. As I continued to munch on the apple, I turned my attention back to Liz, who was now making her way back to her hut.

"You like her, don't you?"

I spun around in surprise and nearly wiped out Nate, who happened to be standing right next to me. Even though I had just almost knocked his head off, he still had a playful looking smirk on his face.

"Hey! What are you talking about?" I demanded.

"Oh, nothing..." Nate replied, whistling innocently, "Anyway, you better find your hut and get settled in. Your's should be the last one on the right."

I thanked him (while quietly mumbling under my breath about his 'comment') and walked to my hut. It was actually pretty well accommodated for some random shack in the middle of a forest: there was a woven rug, a bed complete with blankets and a pillow, and a small chest on the far wall. Curious as to what was inside, I made my way over to the chest and opened it.

Well, here was the answer as to how everyone got their articles of clothing. Inside the chest was a pair of green shoes not unlike Liz's, a pair of white gloves, and a waist belt with a few notches in it to hold stuff. I didn't have much else to do, so I decided to try 'em on. Eerily enough, everything fit perfectly.

I walked back outside, only slightly surprised to discover Nate waiting for me.

"Nice shoes," he complimented

"Thanks... Did everyone find their stuff in the huts?"

"Yep... 'cept for Elizabeth. Thankfully, she was already wearing something when she came into the village. All she found here were the bracelets, shoes, and the dog collar."

A small group of kids suddenly ran past us, playfully arguing as they went.

"Hey! I tagged you! You're it!"

"Nuh-uh! I didn't feel it!"

"That doesn't matter! I touched you!"

"Heh, heh... Kids..." Nate chuckled, "So anyway, want me to show you around a little more? You should probably get acquainted with the path we take to find food around here."

"Sure," I responded, "lead the way."

* * *

By the time we got back from our little nature hike, night had fallen over the forest. All the little kids were huddled around one side of the campfire while Shaun and Liz were sitting on the other side. As we were approaching, it appeared that Shaun was just wrapping up a ghost story.

"_And to this very day,_" Shaun concluded, "_they say that, on nights when the full moon is out, you can still hear his ghost outside any GameStop, moaning, 'I want your Wii... I want your Wii...'_ Well, that's it! Time for bed, you guys!"

There was a collective moan amongst the tikes, but they nevertheless got up and walked to their beds. Liz also got up to make sure everyone was accounted for in their huts, while Nate and I sat down by the fire's glow with Shaun.

"They weren't _really_ scared by that story, where they?" I blurted out, "I mean seriously... 'I want your Wii'?"

"Hey!" Shaun defended, "Nothing is scarier than a fanboy who doesn't get his new system on the launch date! Trust me on this one!"

Liz came walking back, bringing a little more wood for the fire with her.

"All the kids are in bed," she assured, throwing some wood into the blaze and basking in the sudden outburst of warmth, "I don't think I've ever seen so many young kids so obedient."

"You're tellin' me..." I grumbled, reflexively rubbing my butt.

"Well, can you blame them?" Nate asked, "They just suddenly appeared in a new world with a new body... Anyone would be willing to cooperate if it's the only way they'll stand a chance of returning to friends and family."

"Yeah, just ignore the fact that we have no clue what to do now..." Shaun murmured.

There was a long pause before any of us continued.

"So..." I began, "Does anyone have any idea what happened to us?"

"Not a one..." Liz replied, letting out a huge sigh, "One day, I'm vacationing with my parents in Hawaii, and the next, I'm forging for survival as a lizard."

"I'm telling ya..." Shaun mumbled, "This whole thing is like some sorta creepy crossbreed of _Lord of the Flies_ and _The Metamorphosis_!"

Nate stared blankly at his comrade.

"Dude, did you just compare our situation to a pair of classic novels?"

"Um... Yeah... Is there a problem with that?"

All he got as a reply was a collection of nervous laughter from the three of us. As that was dying down, I stared up at the night sky. Stars shown in the sky with a brilliance that I never could have seen in my suburb development. The collection of twinkling stars was so vast, it was as if one could see the entire universe from where we were sitting.

"Well..." I sighed, "Look at the sky."

"Huh? Why?" Liz inquired

"The stars... They're the same here as at home. See?" I began pointing them out, "There's the Big Dipper, the North Star, Polaris... We must still be on Earth."

"Or some variation of it," Nate added.

More silence. That seemed to be a theme here.

"Do you think they're looking for us?" Liz asked.

"You mean our parents?" Nate specified, "I certainly hope so!"

"They are," Shaun assured, "I saw a news report on it right before I wound up here. The police are going bonkers over this. Chances are, they'll _never_ find us, though..."

"Same here," I added, "... We can't just sit here! We gotta do something!"

"I'd be more than glad to," Nate agreed, "but we can't leave this village if more people are still getting sent here!"

"But there are only fourteen huts," Liz countered, "with only one bed each. Since Matt here is the fourteenth, there shouldn't be any more, right?"

"You can't count on that. This whole thing is too random."

"On the contrary," Shaun interrupted, "I was thinking that this situation is being controlled!"

"What are you taking about?" I quipped. I knew there were a few odd coincidences, but...

"Think about it, guys! We all happen to appear by this village, it was abandoned and yet fully functional, and all the clothes and accessories and stuff we find in our huts fit perfectly! That's not random... Some_one_ or some_thing_ has complete reigns over all the stuff that's happening!"

"And who could that possibly be?" Nate asked.

"I... I don't know... But there's someone in control of all this! I know it!"

There was yet another long pause where all that could be heard was the crackling of the fire and the sounds of the woods around us.

"Okay, here's what we'll do..." Nate began, "Tomorrow morning, if no one else shows up like Liz is predicting, three of us will set out and try to find a way out of these woods. The other one will say here and keep an eye on the kids, alright?"

"Yep."

"Yeah."

"Sure."

"Good. We better get to bed, then. If Liz is right, three of us will have a long day tomorrow."

And with that, we parted company from the bonfire. I walked back into my hut, kicked off my shoes, and threw myself onto the bed. Twenty four hours ago, I was just an ordinary teenager making my way through high school. Now, I was a wolf in a mysterious forest, joining forces with other animals to try and find a way out of here. Who knew a life could change so dramatically?

At least, if I somehow managed to get out of all this, I'd certainly have something to write about for that essay.

I stared out my window at the night sky until sleep finally overtook me.


	3. Chapter 3

I woke up the next morning to a sharp knock on my door.

"Ugh..." I moaned, hiding my head under the pillow, "Just five more minutes, Mom..."

I was met with a laugh as a reply.

"I think your mom is probably a bit more worried about something other than your sleep schedule right now."

My eyes shot open as I immediately remembered everything that had happened the day before. I was also given another reminder of my predicament as I found myself staring right at my huge, fluffy, tail, which had somehow curled up into my face during the night. I sat up in bed, knocking away the furry appendage, and quickly noticed that Nate had decided to not wait for me to open the door and was now leaning against the doorframe leading into my hut.

"Oh! Um... Hey, Nate," I yawned, slowly getting out of bed, "what's up? Couldn't give me ten seconds to open the door for you?"

"Turns out Liz was right," Nate explained, "so far, no sign of any newcomers."

"I see..." I replied, putting on my green, oversized shoes, "Does anyone else know?"

"Not really. They're still waiting, I guess. I'm gonna tell them now and get ready to find a way out of this place. You wanna come?"

"Huh? Me?"

"Yeah, three of us are gonna go, remember? Unless, of course, you want to be the one who stays behind and watches the kids."

"Uh... No. Last time I worked with kids, my swim trunks wound up on a flagpole at a summer camp."

I waited a moment to watch his reaction before adding an additional part of that story.

"... With me in them."

I am going to assume that your face right now is the same as his was: Priceless.

We both figured that it was best not to further that conversation and made our way outside. Once out there, we quickly found Shaun and Liz walking about and called them together for a small group meeting.

"So you're saying I was right?" Liz asked, "No one's shown up yet?"

"Yep," Nate answered, "we've got fourteen huts for fourteen kids."

"See?" Shaun interrupted, "Didn't I tell you this is all working out too perf---"

"Yes, Shaun, you told us that last night," I groaned. The guy was bright, but dang, he had a one-track mind.

"Oh... Right... So, what's the plan, then?"

"Simple," Nate replied, "you're good with the kids, right?"

"Yep! The kids love me! Comes from all the community service I did to earn that Eagle Scout Award."

"Good! You stay here and supervise while me, Liz, and Matt go out and search for _other_ signs of life, understand?"

"Wait a second... Why do I have to stay behind?" Shaun complained.

"Because," Liz explained, "Nate's the leader, I know the layout of these woods the best because I'm usually the one sent out to find food, and Matt..." she turned to me, "... You're not good with kids, right?"

How many times did I have to tell people this? Me plus kids equals not a good thing!

"No..." I sighed, "Kids tend to eat me alive."

"So there you go," Liz concluded, "Shaun, you're the best man for the job!"

"But... But... Sigh... Fine, I'll stay here..." Shaun grumbled, "You guys can go have all the fun..."

The deer moped off, leaving the three of us to prepare for the journey ahead. I almost felt sorry for the guy... almost.

"Well, have we got everything?" Nate asked, "We're not turning back until we find answers."

"I think so," Liz answered, "I filled your satchel with some snacks for the road, I've got a pocketknife so we can mark our path..."

"Hold on... You have a pocketknife!?" I interjected.

Liz reached down and pulled a very concealed switchblade out of her boot. It had a small ring-shaped attachment on the underside of the handle, which allowed her to spin it around her finger, kinda like you see cowboys do with their guns in all those old westerns.

"To be honest with you," Liz admitted, "I didn't even notice this thing until I was putting my shoes on this morning! Anyway, I have something for you, too."

"What? Another knife?"

She walked off and came back a few seconds later with something much less exciting: a canteen full of water.

"Here. You're the waterboy, okay?"

"Uh... Gee... Thanks..." I mumbled. I was tempted to do an Adam Sandler impression, but I don't think it's ever wise to joke in front of a woman with a weapon, no matter how small it is.

During all of this time, Nate had walked back into his hut. When he came out, he was holding a rather tall walking stick that you usually see hikers use. I guess that made sense, since we _were_ going on a bit of a hike. However, if you ask me, the thing looked more like it was made to whack someone over the head with rather than assist with climbing over rough terrain.

"Are we ready to set out?" Nate questioned, pointing out of the village.

"I think so," Liz replied, putting the knife back in her shoe, "what about you, Matt?"

"Yep, I'm ready. Let's go."

I swung the canteen strap over my shoulder and the three of us began marching out. It was time to get some answers.

* * *

If I thought my hike _to_ the village on the first day was agonizing, this march was downright torture. We spent the first hour or two in pretty much compete silence. We were all determined to find something out, I guess. However, by the third hour, we started getting a bit bored, and so the small talk began. 

"So... Um... What were you before all of this?" I asked Liz.

"Me? Well..." she pondered for a bit before continuing, "My father's American and my mother's Japanese. He works for some electronic giant whose headquarters is based in Japan, so you can probably guess how he met my mom."

Japanese-American, huh? I always had a thing for Asian girls... Maybe that's why I thought she was kinda cute, even as a lizard?

"I spent most of my life on the west coast, near Silicon Valley, for obvious reasons. The trip to Hawaii was a surprise gift from my dad 'cuz he got a pretty big promotion. I can't remember what... Something with 'Senior' in the title... At any rate, we spent about a week there, catching some waves, basking in the sun... We even went to see Pearl Harbor. Considering my parents' ethnicities, that was a somewhat awkward experience... Anyway, it was our last night when I... you know... wound up here. Right before I went to bed that night, I remember asking my dad if this promotion was gonna cause him to be away from us more. I still remember what he said... He told me, 'Elizabeth, trust me, I will let _nothing_ stand in between me and my little girl.' I wonder what he's doing now, being separated from me and being able to do nothing about it?..."

"It's tough for all of us..." Nate stated, "And for our folks. I'm sure that, no matter how impossible, they must be doing all they can to find us. All we can do is attempt the same to get home."

We continued onward for a few more minutes in silence. Afterwards, we finally stopped to have something to eat out of Nate's satchel. We didn't bring much; three apples and a huge collection of berries, but getting more was easy: just pick it off the trees nearby. As the three of us were seated on a fallen log, eating, I thought I heard something odd coming from a nearby bush. It didn't sound natural at all; in fact, it almost sounded mechanical.

"Guys?" I asked, "Did you hear that?"

"What?" Liz inquired.

"I think there's something over in that bush," I said, pointing towards the shrub in question.

"Probably just your imagination," Nate shrugged.

"No really! I heard something over there!" I insisted, "It sounded like... Like a motor or something!"

"A motor? Out here in the woods?"

"Yeah!... Guys, I'm not crazy!"

To prove my point, I got up and walked over to the foliage.

"Look guys, I know I heard something in this---"

WHAM! I immediately fell backwards at least five feet as something hard and metal hit me square in the nose. By the time I got my bearings back together, I found myself staring up at something that nearly made my heart stop.

Standing above me, with a gun pointed at my head, was a fat, red robot.

The thing was about the same height as me, three feet tall, but he was a _lot_ heavier (considering the fact that his one foot was standing on my tail, and it was hurting like heck). It certainly didn't _look_ physically fit, either: it was rotund, almost a perfect oval, and had flimsily appendages acting as its arms and legs. Its head (which was firmly attached to his body; no neck) had two yellow eyes, a long, cone-shaped nose, and a goofy-looking grin on his mug. In fact, the robot almost looked kinda _familiar_... But I couldn't recall where I had seen it before. I suppose you could attribute that to the fact that it was holding a firearm about three inches away from my forehead. If I didn't do something fast, I was going to have a bullet in my brain.

Thankfully, my friends decided to act for me.

Nate practically lunged from his position on the log and threw himself at the robot, knocking it back a yard or so and giving me a chance to get back up on my own two feet. Liz had her pocketknife drawn (how did she expect to fight with that thing, anyway?), but she couldn't really find an opening, as Nate was busy hammering the oversized trashcan with his wooden pole. Rather than risk another confrontation with the robot, I slowly backed off and let Nate do his crazy thing.

"What is that thing!?" Liz demanded, twirling the knife around on her finger. She really wanted to get in on the action, I suppose.

"Beats me..." I stammered, still a little shaken up by the whole thing, "But it looks like Nate has it all under control."

A few moments later, I was quickly proven true. With one final blow, Nate floored the tin can. After making sure it was really down for the count, Nate turned back to us, stylishly spinning his pole around in one hand.

"Heh, heh..." Nate chuckled to himself, "Nice to know that all those self-defense classes I took at the YMCA finally paid off."

"They teach pole-fighting at the Y?" Liz questioned, raising what would be her eyebrow if lizards had such things.

Unfortunately, Liz never got her question answered. Suddenly and without warning, the presumably 'dead' robot behind Nate sprung back up onto its feet! He turned around just in time to get punched in the face and fall to the ground, much like I did. This time, however, rather than pointing the gun at our friend's forehead, the robot reached down with its other hand and grabbed Nate at the throat! It was trying to choke him! Liz immediately ran in to stop it with her pocketknife (what was she planning on doing with a one inch blade, exactly?), but the robot quickly pointed its gun right at Liz. It didn't fire it, but it forced Liz to back off while it continued to suffocate Nate.

Now, it only had one gun, and it was keeping it on Liz at all times. It wasn't all that concerned with me, so I could've tried to rush in myself, but how was I supposed to stop the thing? I didn't have a weapon! Not even a wimpy little one like Liz's! All I had was a stupid canteen full of water!

Wait a second... Water? Last time I checked, electronics and water didn't go well together...

I unscrewed the lid to the canteen and threw its contents at the robot. Although some of it simply bounced of his outer shell, quite a bit of it fell into some of the cracks that Nate made during his bash-fest. The result was a rather impressive light show, if I do say so myself. Sparks began blowing out of the robot as it began to convulse rather violently. All this sporadic movement eventually caused it to lose its grip on Nate's neck, so he kindly repaid the favor by leaping to his feet, grabbing his pole, and using it like a baseball bat to clobber the now fried robot about ten feet backwards, right into a tree.

I don't know about you, but I think the robot's pretty much finished at this point.

Nevertheless, the three of us approached the smoking remains with extreme caution. Once we were about a foot away, Nate began poking the short-circuited robot with his pole to make sure it was _really_ 'dead'.

"Well..." Nate observed, "I think we got 'im."

We all gave a collective sigh of relief.

"So..." Liz began, "Now what?"

"I dunno..." I shrugged, "Maybe... We should... Um... Take it back to camp?"

If looks could kill, I think the pair I got from my partners would've stabbed me in the gut, slit my throat, and then kick my corpse around for a little while after my death.

"We should do WHAT!?" Liz shrieked, probably loud enough to shatter glass (and my eardrum), "Are you crazy!?"

"I mean... Uh... If we did that, we could show it to Shaun! He's a nerd! He could probably reprogram the thing to go find help or something!"

"For starters, Shaun isn't what I'd call a 'nerd'," Nate corrected, "Smart? Yes. A genius? Possibly. But he certainly doesn't fit that stereotype otherwise. Secondly, the Boy Scouts isn't exactly a computer-intensive organization, so just because he knows a lot about survival doesn't mean he knows much about computers."

Dang. I just got shot down twice in as many seconds. I guess this is why Nate's the leader and I'm not. Well, that and the fact that he's a year older and has been here thirteen days more than I have.

Oh well, I'll just keep persisting. That's what I'm good at (just ask my mom).

"But... Think about it guys! If we bring this thing back to the village, maybe someone will recognize it! You said we were looking for answers, right? Well, we just might have a big one right here!"

Both Nate and Liz thought this over for a moment.

"Well, he has a point..." Liz mused.

"Hmm... Okay," Nate concluded, "we'll bring this giant trash can back to the village and see if anyone has any clue as to what it is."

I win. Score.

Nate grabbed the robot's arms while I lifted it up by its legs. Liz, meanwhile, seemed perfectly content to just watch us carry the thing (I guess she was getting back for all the times Nate made her go get food or something...). Of course, we still had to haul this half-ton monster about ten miles back to camp, but none of us really cared. We had finally found something that might have some answers.

* * *

It was mid-afternoon by the time we finally returned. All the kids who were playing around the village understandably stopped and stared at us as we dragged the blown-out robot down the main 'street' in the village. Shaun was seated by the campfire, starting to get dinner ready when we promptly dumped the metal menace at his feet with a loud 'CLUNK!'. Interestingly enough, he didn't seem all that bowled over by the sudden 'gift'. 

"I seriously hope I don't need to tell you we can't eat _that_," Shaun quipped sarcastically, "I mean, I understand wanting a high-iron diet and all, but..."

"Can it, Shaun," Liz spat. For someone who didn't have to carry a thousand pound monstrosity through ten miles of wood, she seemed to be the most exhausted and jaded by the time we returned, "that thing nearly strangled Nate during our hike. Do you have any idea what it is? We can't figure it out."

I looked back at the robot that Shaun was now inspecting. Now, I _really_ felt like I had seen something like this somewhere before... But where? It certainly couldn't have been in real life (back when I was human, I mean... This whole furry thing felt more like _sur_real life), so it had to be from a movie or something...

"Hmm... Ahh..." Shaun pondered, "Gah, I can't think of anything at the moment, sorry. Can't shake the feeling like I've seen it somewhere before, though..."

"Yeah, same here," I concurred, "maybe one of the kids knows?"

At this point, just about all the little kids had made their way to the bonfire to look for themselves at this huge discovery. As one might expect, they were a little less cautious and a lot more excited about the prospect of having their very own robot, regardless of the fact that it nearly killed their leader.

"Cool!" exclaimed a small sparrow, "That's one awesome robot!"

"Yeah!" agreed a chubby guinea pig, "We should make it our own personal servant!"

"Tph... Yeah, right!" shouted the same tiger cub that I met the previous day, "That thing looks stupid! I mean, look how it's shaped! It's a giant freakin' _egg_, man!"

_Egg... Man... _EGGMAN!? Bells, whistles, and at least ten air raid sirens went off in my head all at the same time. In my mind, a dawn of revelation had just rocketed up, the heavens were parting, and angels were descending, singing the Hallelujah Chorus. It all made sense now! _I KNEW WHERE WE WERE!!!_ I guess Shaun must have noticed this, as he was looking at the sudden awestruck expression on my face with great confusion.

"Um... Dude? You okay? I'm the deer, I'm the one who's supposed to look like he's staring into headlights..."

I didn't reply. Instead, I marched over and set the robot in as upright of a position as possible.

"Guys..." I began, "Does this guy look recognizable to you?"

I got a bunch of confused "No..."s as a reply.

"Okay... How many of you play video games?"

Although I think they were all caught off guard by my sudden subject change, just about every hand shot up anyhow. Now we were getting somewhere.

"Right then... What ones?"

There were a bunch of varied answers. Nate mentioned _Halo_ and _Gears of War_, Liz listed a bunch of RPGs (what is it with women and their RPGs?), and Shaun sputtered off _Brain Age_ and _Nintendogs_ (was Nate sure this guy wasn't a 'nerd'?). From rest of the kids, I got a few more replies. A few brought up _Mario Kart_, but most just talked about those awful movie-licensed games. Eventually, though, someone mentioned exactly what I was waiting for.

"Well..." a tiny beaver said, "I played _Sonic Heroes_..."

He was silent for a moment before it also hit him.

"HEY! WAIT A SECOND!!!" he squealed, pointing a finger (claw?) at the robot, "That guy looks like one of 'em baddies from that game! It's a... Uh... Watchamacallit..."

"An Egg Pawn?" I suggested.

"Yeah!"

That did it. I got up in front of the crowd and looked at everyone. I knew I was gonna hate myself for uttering the line that I had previously lampooned in so many terrible fanfictions, but I just had to get it out.

"Guys... I think we're in the Sonic universe."

At this point, the floodgates opened.

Six people gasped, four shrieked, two cried, and I think one of them completely passed out. Amidst all the confusion, I could only make out scattered collections of incomplete sentences as everyone started talking to everyone else at the same time.

"---nic? Who's tha---"

"---on't tell me you don't know who Sonic the Hedg---"

"Isn't he an anime character? I saw him on FoxBo---"

"---ou kiddin'? He's a _game_ character, stu---"

"---aven't seen him since I stopped reading that comic book!"

"---tuck here? Couldn't I have wound up someplace cooler, like the Mushroom Kin---"

"---_ND LEARN! HANGING ON THE ED_---"

"YO! EVERYONE! CALM DOWN!!!"

Thank God for Nate. If it weren't for him, I think we'd still be freaking out over this shocking development. Upon hearing his booming voice, the whole place died down rather quickly.

"Okay, now look, I'm sure this is a pretty big theory Matt's just come up with..." he looked at me, "But we can't jump to conclusions..."

"But he has to be right!" Shaun countered, "The robot you guys took out is definitely one of those Egg Pawn thingies from _Sonic Heroes_! I _knew_ I had seen him someplace before!"

Nate looked at him, at the crown of hyperactive grade schoolers, and finally back at me.

"Well, I guess this might be enough evidence after all... Okay, so it's official then: _as far as we can tell, we are in the Sonic universe_. Any questions?"

One tiny paw shot up.

"Can we go fight Eggman now?"

If I was an anime character, I think I would've just collapsed on the floor right then. We've just figured out we're in Sonic-land, and some kid's already wanting to go fight Eggy. And can we say 'Mary Sue'?

"Uh... No..." Nate replied, "Our first order of business is moving out. If this is the Sonic world, there must be a Station Square somewhere, correct?"

Nods.

"Then, we should set out and find it. Hopefully, we'll be able to find our way home from there. Any more questions?"

This time, no one stuck their hand up.

"Well then, this 'meeting' is dismissed."

* * *

Oddly enough, despite my whole grandiose revelation, the rest of the day was much like the day before. The kids still goofed around while the four of us took care of more important things. However, there was one key difference: just about every conversation between the kiddies was about (surprise, surprise) Sonic. Regardless, the day soon turned to night, and that found ourselves around the bonfire once again after all the tykes went to bed. 

"So..." Liz began, "We're in the world of Sonic the Hedgehog, huh?"

"When you think about it, we shouldn't be all that surprised," Shaun observed, "I mean, there were signs..."

"Like?..." Nate asked.

"Well, take... us, for example. When you think of furries, you usually think of creatures with a mostly human anatomy but with animalistic features, right? Like werewolves and cat women and mermaids and stuff."

"Well, I don't exactly think of furries all that often," Liz commented, "but yeah, you're right."

"But we, on the other hand, are much shorter than an average human, and not all that anatomically similar, either. We've got huge heads and bodies, and skinny arms and legs. In other words, just like Sonic characters!"

I didn't notice it before, but Shaun was indeed right. How could I have missed something like that? I'm even a Sonic fan, for crying out loud!

"You know..." I added, "There was something I didn't exactly bring up before about all this."

"Hm? What's that?" Liz inquired.

"It's clear we're in _a_ Sonic universe, but what one? SEGA? _SatAM_? _Sonic X_?"

There was a moment of quiet contemplation between the four of us before Nate spoke up.

"Well, let's put our brains together. From what I know, there are eight major 'Sonicverses' correct?"

"Yep!" I confirmed. When you spend so much time on fanfiction, you have to be familiar with every angle of the characters you write about.

"So, who knows what?" he asked, "I mean, I played the old games, but not so much the new ones. I also watched the two old shows. You know, _AoStH_ and _SatAM_, so I'm pretty well-researched on those three things, _if_ this world is based on one of them. Anyone else?"

"Well, I don't like telling this to many people..." Liz admitted, turning notably redder (is that possible for a cold blooded animal?), "But I really, _really_ like the Archie comics. I've been reading them since issue one."

"Hey, don't feel bad," Shaun assured, "You're not the only comic fan around here! _I_ managed to get all the Fleetway comics off of Ebay! Still, I kinda prefer the games more, but those comics were really well written nonetheless."

"Anything else, Shaun?" Nate asked.

"Um... I've seen quite a few _Sonic Underground_ episodes, but I had to stop watching them before the musical sections made my ears bleed. Other than that... Not much."

Nate nodded in acknowledgement and then turned to me.

"Well then, what about you, Matt?"

"Me?" I replied, "I guess I know the modern Sonic games pretty well... Screwy camera angles, wonky controls, and terrible voice acting be danged! They're still fun!"

I got three awkward stares in response to my soliloquy. Even amongst fellow fans, my stance on the modern games was considered weird.

"Uh... Right then... I also saw that anime movie once, and I try to get DVDs of _Sonic X_ when I can. Otherwise, I'm at least vaguely familiar with the other incarnations of the Blue Blur."

"Great then!" Nate declared, "That means that, between the four of us, we are totally prepared for _whatever_ version of Sonic's world we are in!"

There was a few more moments of silence while we simply enjoyed the warmth of the fire.

"So, um..." Shaun mumbled, "Nate, were you serious about the breaking camp thing?"

"Yeah, why?"

"I mean, isn't that a little... well... crazy? Why should we all be trying to find Station Square or something like it? What's wrong with living here?"

"It's not a matter of where we're going to live," Nate explained, "Station Square, as far as I can recall, is pretty much the 'hub' of the modern Sonic worlds. If we can find that, there's a good chance we'll find _some_thing about getting home. I mean, we might even run into Sonic or one of his friends! _They_'d be a _great_ help, I'm sure of it!"

Somehow, I personally wasn't convinced. Sure, Sonic liked to save the world and stuff like that, but help a rag-tag group of minors find a way home? Very unlikely. At least, that's the impression I got after reading so many of those stupid self-insert fics. In those stories, the author never _wants_ to leave! Then again, _this_ was pretty much a living, breathing self-insert fic.

That's when it hit me: what if there _wasn't_ a way home? I certainly couldn't think of any direct answers right off the bat. The only thing that came to mind was the Chaos Emeralds, but that just seemed overly cliché. Of course, since we were pretty much trapped in a self-insert nightmare, maybe an overly used plot device was the only way out of this thing.

I lolled my head back, only to be face-to-face with a robot's ugly mug. I practically jumped ten feet into the air before I realized that it was just the tin can we trashed earlier, still sitting there.

"Say, guys?" I asked, "Last time I checked, Eggman never sends just one robot."

"Your point?" Liz requested.

"Do you think more of these things are out there? Like... I dunno... an _army_? What if they find this village?"

"All the more reason to break camp, eh?" Nate suggested, "Don't fret about it, Matt. Tomorrow, we're heading out, and there's strength in numbers."

"Right..." I moaned, getting up and leaving the campfire. My fears weren't all that relayed by Nate's assurances, but there indeed wasn't much to do until the next day. Still slightly unsettled by everything that had happened during this monumental day, I headed back to my hut and fell asleep on the bed without even taking my shoes off.

* * *

I was awakened at what felt like only a few hours later to a deafening scream. I couldn't make out who it was, but what they were saying was clear. 

"EVERYBODY RUN!!! WE'RE UNDER ATTACK!!!"


	4. Chapter 4

I shot up in bed and frantically tried to take in my surroundings. Everything had an almost demonic reddish glow about it, with shadows dancing and flickering across the walls. It also felt considerably warmer since when I had gone to sleep. I was about to attribute it to just still not being accustomed to my fur until my nose picked up the unmistakable odor of smoke. It didn't take the senses of a wolf to figure out what that meant. I glanced upward and noticed that the entire roof of my hut was on fire! Considering that my humble abode was made of _wood_, I promptly decided that hanging around in here any longer was crazy and prepared to escape posthaste.

Thankfully, the fact that I had fallen asleep with all my 'clothes' on, the only possessions I had in this place, spared me the need to go rummaging around in this blazing deathtrap for any personal belongings. Instead, I bolted out of bed and made a mad dash for the door, praying that my smoldering shack would hold up for another two seconds.

Of course, it didn't.

About a foot from the door, the entire place suddenly began collapsing around me. Not wanting to discover how fire-resistant my body was (Richard Pryor was more than enough evidence for me, and _he_ didn't even have any fur!), I dive-bombed towards the exit and made it out just as my hut got leveled by the flames.

As I got back up to my feet and looked around, I quickly decided that I was probably better off staying in the hut.

The entire village was on fire, throwing the entire night sky into the same lurid glow that was in my former living space. Unlike mine, most of the huts were still standing. However, they appeared to be slowly deteriorating in condition, with one of them collapsing before my very eyes. Of course, this wasn't going on with no one noticing: the children were all running around in a total anarchy of panic and confusion. Some were fleeing into the woods, others were trying to play hero by putting out the flames (yeah, right... How are you gonna do that, genius? Pee on it?), but most were simply running around in circles, screaming or crying for their moms. Amidst all of the confusion, I was able to spot Shaun trying to reclaim some substance of order and get everyone evacuated.

"Shaun!" I shouted out, running over to the deer, "What's going on!? What's happening!?"

"I don't know!" Shaun snapped as a reply, obviously too worried about getting everyone out safely to be concerned with pleasantries, "This place just started going up in flames! I don't know how it... Oh, shoot..."

Shaun suddenly trailed off and began staring like (pardon the blatant pun) a deer in the headlights at something behind me. Easily concluding that whatever he was looking at couldn't have been good, I nervously turned around, only to discover that, as unbelievable as it may seem, the fire was the least of our worries.

Walking through the flames ravaging our village was an entire army of Eggman robots. There were about ten Egg Pawns like the one we just _barely_ managed to trash out in the woods, and they were _not_ alone. Joining the entourage were a few flappers (the flying robots in _Sonic Heroes_, not girls from the Roaring '20s, stupid), a dozen or so of those more realistic-lookin' guys found in Sonic NextGen, and, most shocking of all, about fifteen robots that I recognized from _another_ Sonic continuity: SWATbots! To top things off, they all seemed to be under the command of another classic baddie: the ever-not-so-popular Eggrobo from _Sonic and Knuckles_! In other words, it was fourteen of us, most who weren't even old enough to drive yet, vs. nearly fifty of them, a 'greatest hits' collection of Eggman's goons!

I don't know about you, but I hardly call that a fair fight.

"Wha... Wha..." I sputtered like an incoherent idiot, "We gotta get outta here! Where's Nate!? Where's Liz!? We gotta find all the kids and run!"

Shaun was about to respond, but we were both cut off when our two other friends ran right past us. Nate was twirling his pole around like a madman, ready to strike at anything metallic, while Liz was doing improv with a burning branch she picked up off the ground (I guess even she realized that a pocketknife wasn't gonna help...).

"We'll hold these jerks off!" Nate hollered, "You two get everyone out safely!"

Neither me nor Shaun were exactly in the mood to argue, so we ran off and tried to round up all the kids. This, of course, was a lot easier said than done. Since no one exactly wants to stand still during while there's a huge fire and a bunch of robots attacking (who would?), we found that we were constantly recounting the same kids and that there had to be at least a few unaccounted for. Regardless, we rounded up as many as we could and got them a short distance out of the village until the flames themselves couldn't even be seen.

"Whoa, hold on..." I panted like... well... a dog, "Shaun, how many kids are you counting?"

"Well... Um..." Shaun mumbled, trying to think, "There's us two, Nate and Liz are holding the robots off... At least, I _hope_ they are..." he began counting the ones right in front of us, "And I'm counting five here."

"WHAT!? ONLY FIVE!?" I yelled, "That must mean there's still five in that village, then! We have to go back!"

"We can't risk it!" Shaun retorted, "I'm sure Nate and Liz will find them!"

I looked at Shaun, and then back towards the village. Although the flames were out of sight, the eerie glow continued to resonate from the area and the smell of things burning was not being lost on my canine nose. Heck with the risks: I'm not leaving them behind.

"You wait here with the ones we got," I told Shaun, "I'm going back."

"Are you crazy!? You can't do that!"

"Watch me," I quipped, running back into the inferno. I'm pretty sure I heard Shaun mumble something I'd rather not repeat, but the line was lost on me, anyway. I needed to find the rest of the kids and that was final.

As I approached the village, I nearly ran right into Nate. He was currently trying to make his own escape, and he was carrying an unconscious Liz over his shoulders!

"Nate!" I yelped in surprise, "What happened to Liz!?"

"SWATbot zapped her with a stun gun," Nate explained, "at least, that's what I think it was... She's still breathing, and that's all that matters. We have to get outta here!"

"Wait! Did you see any kids while you were in there? Shaun and I only got five!"

The sudden look of shock on Nate's face clearly told me 'no'. He whirled around and frantically scanned the blazing nightmare for any sign of non-robotic life. I was the first to spot something, however: I saw the same tiger cub from before... Getting dragged off by Eggrobo!

"IEEE!!!" the poor kid cried, "PLEASE!!! SOMEBODY HELP!!! MOMMY!!!"

I glanced over at Nate; it was obvious he also saw the cub. However, he was frantically shifting views from him to the unconscious Liz. It was clear that he was stuck in a dilemma: whose life was more worth saving, the tiger cub's or Liz's? I, on the other hand, was much more focused on the life in front of me, not next to me. How could someone do that to a little kid?... How _dare_ that robot do that to that kid!

At this point, something within me awakened.

Slowly, my vision started turning red, not from the flames, but in pure rage, and everything started to simply fade away: all I saw was the kid and that blasted robot. I felt the fur all over my body began to prickle up and my heart began beating faster and faster. Suddenly, I fell to the ground and began running, on all fours, to my foe... My victim. Before, I may have looked like a wolf, but I was still human, but not now. I could feel it... Now, I was pure animal, pure beast, pure _monster_.

I can't remember much of what happened after I gave into my animal instincts, but the feeling was unforgettable. Nothing could stop me from reaching my target. I think about four Egg Pawns and six SWATbots tried to get in my way, but I was unbeatable, untamable. At one point, I felt electricity pulse through me, possibly from some robot using those stun guns Nate mentioned, but they couldn't stop me. Rather, it made me stronger; what was meant to paralyze me simply invigorated me. A few robots tried to stop me with brute force, but I just plowed through them, motor oil and circuits feeling like ecstasy for my rage. I was shot at, punched at, clawed at, but no about of pain or blood loss would stop me. Not until I destroyed that monster.

Eggrobo didn't even stand a chance. He pitifully tried to simply drop the cub, hoping that would somehow quell my wrath. I repaid his effort by leaping at his 'jugular', sinking my fangs into his almost non-existing neck, completely unaffected by the massive voltage that was leaping from his open circuits and directly into my body. About ten more robots piled on top of us, trying to pull me off their leader, but I refused. At this moment, my adrenalin had reached its breaking point. My vision completely went red. There were just noises: explosions, screaming, the sound of my claws on metal, and then... nothing. Complete and udder stillness, quietness, and darkness.

It was perhaps the most euphoric rest I had ever gotten.

* * *

I woke up to a throbbing headache and a nausea that probably rivaled the hangovers usually reserved for the worst of drunkards (and the Kennedy's). My vision was still blurry, but judging by the huge collection of green and blue blurs that were entering my retinas, I figured that I must have been lying face-up, looking at the morning sky through a canopy of leaves. I tried to get up, but something held me back down.

"Whoa, now... Settle down, mate. You still need your rest."

I recognized that voice: it was Nate. Finally, my eyesight started coming back together and I was able to see my companion kneeing at my side, holding 'my' canteen to my lips, letting me take a sip.

"You took a real beating out there," Nate began as I struggled to swig some water down, "you should've seen yourself go! You were leaping around like... like..."

"... Buck at the end of _The Call of the Wild_?"

Okay, that confirmed that Shaun was nearby.

"Um... Right..." Nate mumbled, not impressed with the Boy Scout's literacy knowledge (although, having read that book, I'd have to agree that his analogy was pretty accurate), "Seriously though, Matt, what got into you? You practically took on an entire army of robots by yourself!"

"I... I don't know..." I groaned, slowly sitting up and supporting my back against a nearby tree, "It was like... Like something just rose up in me... I don't even think I was... human..."

"Well, none of us are really 'human' at this point, but I get your drift."

Suddenly, I remembered why I had risked my life to begin with: the kids!

"Nate!" I suddenly shouted, sitting up straight (and causing a very sharp pain in my muscles), "Where's that kid!? Did I save him!?"

Before Nate could reply, the tiger cub I had nearly decapitated Eggrobo for came walking up.

"Yep! Ya saved me!" the kid declared, "Not bad for one of you big'ums... But my name's not 'Kid', it's Mike, got it?"

I risk my neck to save this brat and this his how he thanks me!? Before I could say some choice words about gratitude, 'Mike' walked off to do whatever little kids do after someone, you know, saves their life. Jerk.

As Mike went on his way, I took the time to take in my surroundings. Wherever we were, it wasn't near the village: it looked like we were in some rest-stop along the side of a medium-sized dirt road. I guess someone must've dragged me all the way here. I'll have to thank them when I find out who.

To my left was Shaun. Although I definitely didn't see him do much fighting before my little berserk-fest, he actually looked rather battle-torn. Must've come back and fought after seeing me run off to do the same. His Boy Scout vest was all ragged at the bottom, and one of his antlers had a half-inch or so snapped off. The biggest clue that he got into combat, though, was that his fur had black singes all over it, indicating where (laser) blaster fire had just barely gazed him. So Shaun actually fought... I didn't know he had it in him.

I glanced left at Nate again; he took an even worse beating. He had his right arm wrapped up in a crude bandage made out of leaves (probably the work of Shaun and his 'amazing' survival skills), and there was a huge gash running down the side of his left thigh. It definitely looked like it would scar, but at least the fur would cover it up. I wonder: if we ever got our human bodies back, would he still have that scar?

That's when I realized I hadn't even seen what had happened to me. Looking downward, my left arm was in a similar leaf bandage as Nate's, and my right arm was all black and smelled like smoke, either from the flames or all the electricity that got shot through my body. My legs were also badly cut up; not enough to scar like Nate's, but enough to still be slightly bleeding and getting my fur all sticky and messy (note to self: find body of water and wash off ASAP). Although I couldn't see my back (what do I look like, a contortionist?), the fact that I winced whenever I felt around back there seemed to imply that it was badly beaten. Finally, my tail got a bit of a haircut: it now looked haphazardly styled, with sporadic 'almost-bald' spots, and I coulda sworn that it was a touch shorter... I think the end got nicked off!

I then looked around to see who else was there. Besides Nate, Shaun, and Mike, there were the other five kids that Shaun and I rescued, but no one else. Liz wasn't even there.

"Nate..." I murmured, "Where's Liz? And the rest of the kids? Didn't we rescue?..."

"Liz is fine," Nate assured, "she's sitting on a log over there; you just can't see her from your position. But the other kids..."

His head bowed down, like he was paying respect to the dead. Not good.

"When you kicked Eggrobo's butt, all the other robots simply stopped what they were doing," Shaun explained for Nate, "it was like they were waiting for orders or something... During that pause, we saw a few of those flying goons holding the four other kids! But before we could react, all the robots retreated... Faster than we could keep up... And the kids... They were taken with them..."

"But don't worry, mate," Nate comforted, "we're gonna get those kids back. If those robots didn't want to _kill_ them, they must be held prisoner somewhere, right?"

There was a low, almost inaudible laugh, coming from where Nate had motioned that Liz was. It wasn't a cheerful laugh or anything, but more like a sarcastic chuckle, or the kind of sad laugh someone makes when they're about to tell someone something terrible, pitifully assuming that the laugh will somehow lessen the blow. Leaning forward as far as I could, I was able to see our only female companion, sitting on a log like Nate said, laughing. She looked the worst out of all of us. While she had no scars or burns to speak of, her scales, which used to practically shine in the sunlight, were now dry and flaky, like mud that has dried up in the sun. Her chap skin also had tons of cracks in it, causing very small drops of blood to be coming out of seemingly every pore in her body. Ew.

"Come on, Nate, who are you kidding?" Liz asked, letting out another sad sigh of a laugh, "You watched SatAM... What does Robotnik do to his prisoners?"

A dawn of realization came amongst all of us. We knew what she was talking about: the roboticizer.

"But... But come on!" Nate protested, "He wouldn't do that to a bunch of kids, would he?"

She didn't bother to counter his argument; she was right and she knew it. I turned back to the kids that we managed to save from that awful fate: there were clear looks of sadness and confusion on their faces. They knew something terrible had happened to their friends, but they didn't know what.

It was the end of innocence for all of us: _this_ was what the Sonic universe was really like, and we wanted to go home.


	5. Chapter 5

"NO! PLEASE! SOMEBODY, GET ME OUTTA HERE!"

I banged my fist against the glass again, but to no avail: it wouldn't break. Heck, it was probably bulletproof for all I knew.

I spun around, trying to find another means of escape. However, there was none. I was completely surrounded by a glass tube that went all the way up to the ceiling. Looking through the glass, I could see computer equipment lining all the walls of the room I was in, spewing seemingly random lines of code across their screens. My eyes quickly focused on a lone, shadowy figure standing in the furthest corner of the room, entering commands into the computers with a huge dashboard of flashing buttons, dials, and levers. I couldn't make out many of his features, due to the poor lighting conditions, except for the fact that he was rather... rotund.

"You're the only one left..." the figure sneered, "All your friends are already gone."

My heart skipped a beat. I knew that voice... It was Dr. Eggman! I kept pounding on the glass, praying that whatever possessed me during the fire would come again.

"I hope you like it here," he laughed as he pulled down one final lever, "because you're never going to leave."

A bright, green light shot up out of the floor, engulfing my entire body. I could feel the excruciating pain crawling up my legs before it suddenly went away and I felt nothing at all. I risked a look down and saw, to my horror, my flesh slowly transforming into metal, creeping up my body like water goes up a paper towel, even when you only submerge the bottom edge. Soon, my legs were completely metallic. My tail streamlined into a metal club that could probably break bones. I felt the blood in my veins turn into oil as the process crawled up my chest and overtook my heart. Soon, only my head was still organic, and even it was getting taken over. I closed my eyes in shock as my normal vision started turning green and a sudden bombardment of computer text swarmed my retinas. Not long after that, I started feeling woozy as my brain began to turn into a CPU, stealing away my free will and making me a slave to the Eggman Empire...

... Until I suddenly woke up in a cold sweat and found myself staring at Shaun, drooling and snoring loudly.

I laid perfectly still for a moment, panting heavily and praising the Lord that it was just a dream. I had been getting that same confounded nightmare every night since we left the village in all its blazing glory. I suppose I should thank Liz for that, really. After all, _she_ was the one who reminded us all of that wonderful thing known as the roboticizer. Could four of our friends _really_ be robots now? I certainly didn't want to think about it, and neither did anyone else, so we all decided just to drop it altogether. Although, I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one getting nightmares about it.

I sat up in 'bed', which was really just a huge pile of leaves spread out on the ground. We had been traveling through this stupid forest for about a week now, with no clear signs of any way out. Seriously, it was starting to look more like Forever Forest in Paper Mario than anything in a Sonic game. Thankfully, though, Shaun seemed confident that we were almost out of the woods. Something to do with how 'the flora was more accustomed to the fringes of a forest ecosystem rather than the deeper interior' or some ecological garbage like that. How does he know all this stuff, anyway? Really, all I remember from _my_ environmental science class was watching _An Inconvenient Truth_ and getting lulled to sleep by Al Gore's droning voice talking about how Florida will be flooded in twenty years. Someone refresh my memory: _Why_ would he care about the state that screwed him over in the election?

But I digress; politics was never my strongest suit (and never will be, either).

During the week our little group forged through the forest, our wounds from the fire slowly began to heal. Shaun's antlers are still lopsided, but the singes in his fur are less noticeable now and I'm sure they'll wash off the next time he takes a bath. I never quite figured out why Nate was wearing that 'cast', but whatever the reason, by the third day of traveling, he was able to take it off. The flipping huge gash on his leg did indeed scar, but you can't really see it unless you look closely. Liz stopped her little 'blood sweating' thing due to her chapped skin on the second day, but she still looks pretty... um... rough, for lack of a better term. As for me, both my arms and legs are recovering fine, but sadly, my tail still looks like it got stuck in a pencil sharpener.

I glanced up at the night sky. It was certainly past midnight, but it didn't look like the sun was coming up any time soon. Surrounding me was our entire group: there were ten of us now, since four got captured by the Doc. All of them were sleeping peacefully, some sucking their thumbs (how's _that_ gotta taste with fur on it?), others subconsciously flicking their tails around, and a few mumbling in their sleep. However, I noticed that one of the 'beds' was empty: Nate's. Looking around, I spotted him a short distance off, sitting on a boulder, fighting pole at his side.

"Can't get any sleep either?" I asked, getting up and accompanying Nate on the rock.

"Naw, I'm just keeping an eye out for any more robots," Nate responded, pulling an apple out of his satchel and taking a bite, "we lost four kids because we were caught by surprise. I'm not letting it happen again."

There was a slight pause as the two of us just glanced out at the road ahead, spying for the robots that would probably never come.

"So..." I began with a long sigh, "Do you think Liz is right about the roboticizer?"

"I dunno... It depends on which Robotnik or Eggman or whatever we're dealing with."

"Well, I'm not so sure there's any way to tell," I explained, "I mean, we got attacked by Egg Pawns _and_ SWATbots back at the village and those two aren't from the same continuity at all! What if we're dealing with some sort of hybrid Eggman?"

"If that's the case, I certainly hope he's 50 percent _Sonic X_'s lame humor and 50 percent _AoStH_'s looks and intelligence!"

We both chuckled at Nate's wishful thinking. Knowing our luck, we were probably stuck with something more like 99 percent _SatAM_ and 1 percent everything else. Robotnik was _nasty _in that show, man, and if some of the fanfictions I've seen around are any indication, it is easy to picture him doing stuff a _lot_ worse than what they showed in the cartoon (torture and mutilation seem to be popular choices, and that's just in the 'T' rating!). Still, not even _he_ would be cruel enough to do anything like that to a bunch of kids, right?

Then again, I thought _Shadow the Hedgehog_ was just a bad April Fool's joke.

Nate looked up to the heavens, watching the stars shine with their eternal brilliance.

"As far as I'm concerned, it doesn't matter which Doctor we're stuck with. Our goal is still the same: save the kids and get home."

"Well, you're certainly ambitious," I commented, joining him in the stargazing, "but how are we gonna save them, exactly? We're just a bunch of kids!"

"Hey, Sonic does it all the time, and he's younger than me!"

Geez, I never thought about that before. Heck, Sonic's fifteen (at least, according to ye old_ Sonic Heroes _manual), which makes _me_ older than him! Still, there's a little thing called _experience_, something that we certainly didn't have. Sonic's been smashing bots since he was, what, five? The closest I've ever gotten to that was kicking my Gamecube across the room when I couldn't beat Fire Leo in _Viewtiful Joe_ for the eighty-sixth time (yes, I did actually keep count).

"Nate," I stated flatly, "Sonic's been doing his thing since '91. You ever fight a robot before all this?"

"Well, technically, he's been doing it since 3224," Nate corrected, a teasing smirk on his lips, "that's when Robotnik staged the coup, remember?"

"Only in _SatAM_... And you know darn well what I mean! We're just kids from the real world! We know about as much about fighting Eggman's goons as... I dunno... Chris Thorndike!"

Nate paused for a moment in silent concentration before speaking again.

"Well... You may have your doubts, I can understand that, but I believe we can still save them. I mean, hope's about the only thing we have left now. We want to get home and we want to save those kids. Do we have any real evidence that it's possible to do either?"

I shook my head 'no'.

"Exactly. All we've got to go on is the mere hope that we can do it. That may not sound like much, but... It's all we have, and it's what's keeping me going at this point."

Nate turned to me, looking slightly concerned.

"That didn't come out horrendously cheesy, did it?"

There was an awkward silence before we both broke out laughing. How we didn't wake anyone up is a mystery. After about a minute or so, we finally came back to our senses.

"Listen, Matt, you better get back to bed," Nate suggested, "it's bad enough that I'll probably be half-dead tomorrow morning, we don't need you to be zonked out, too."

"Yeah, that's a good idea," I agreed, "otherwise, that would leave Shaun in command... That's a scary thought."

"I'm sure Liz would make sure he didn't screw up anything _too_ badly, though. Still, why take the chance? G'Night, Matt."

"Night."

I headed back to the pile of leaves that attempted to qualify as my bed and laid down, face up, on it. Looking up at the night sky for the umpteenth time tonight got me thinking about what Nate had said. Hope is indeed a strong thing: just ask any of the wise guys in the Bible. What kept Abraham going? The Israelites? The Apostles? Hope that the Big Man upstairs was watching over them. Nate was relying on the same thing.

I wonder if God knows we're here? Naw, that's a stupid question. The Dude's omnipresent; He knows we're here and He's watching over us, I'm sure of it.

Dang, does everyone get this philosophical at night? Actually, it's probably the other way around. People think of deep, meaningful stuff and then it _keeps_ them up all night.

It obviously didn't have that effect on me, though: I fell back asleep before I even finished that thought.

* * *

I was awakened the next morning by getting hit in the head with something hard. I immediately shot straight up in 'bed' and found an apple resting in my lap. Looking around, I noticed Shaun and the guinea pig kid standing a short distance away. When they realized I was looking at them, the little kid pointing an accusing finger at Shaun. He responded by pointing a finger back at the kid.

Was this guy really an Eagle Scout or did he just get his badge in a cereal box?

I slowly got to my feet when I realized something was drastically wrong: there wasn't anyone else there! It was just the three of us!

"SHAUN!" I shouted, sudden panic shooting up in me like a rocket, "WHERE'D EVERYONE ELSE---"

"Whoa, relax, Matt!" Shaun assured, "That's why I... I mean... George here woke you up. The rest of the gang has already headed off. You were the last one asleep!"

'George' wasn't so fond of being accused of something he didn't do, so he showed his frustration by kicking Shaun in the shins.

Why do I have the sinking feeling that Shaun will be in a body cast by the time this is all over?

"Nice to see that they were so kind to wait up for me," I mumbled sarcastically.

"Well... You see... Look, it's better if I just show you."

Shaun and George (I wasn't aware that was a popular kid's name right now...) ran ahead, leaving me to hastily leap to my feet and run off after them. After a minute or so of running, we finally caught up with the rest of the group and I quickly found out why no one waited up for me.

In front of us was a huge, pristine lake. It was about twenty-five feet long with a large, rocky waterfall at the far end that fed water into the lake and a small river to the left side that emptied it out. If you ask me, it almost looked like a Disney-fied pool, only rather than being beautiful, realistic-_looking_, but fake, _this_ body of water was the real deal. Of course, this meant no chlorine and possibly a large collection of water-based bacteria, but I tend to try to avoid the negatives. It isn't healthy (then again, Legionella isn't exactly a health-fest, either).

At any rate, it is a scientifically proven fact that kids are as attracted to water as Sony's marketing execs are attracted to incomprehensibly stupid ads (crying babies and exploding Rubik's Cubes, anyone?), so it came as little surprise to me to find all of the little buggers splashing around happily in the lake like they were at a water park. I, on the other hand, found the lake to offer a much more practical opportunity: the first chance to take a bath since I wound up on Mobius.

Needless to say, I certainly had no intentions on blowing that chance.

I took a running leap and dived into the lake, shoes, gloves, and all. As soon as I hit the water, I practically felt all the soot, dirt, dried blood, and God-knows-what-else that was clinging to my fur this past week suddenly come off. It felt like it was a caked-on layer that was just now 'peeling off.' When I surfaced again, I could see a dark, brown-and-reddish cloud forming underwater where I had dived in just moments before. It almost looked like I had dumped a load while I was down there.

Okay, yeah, that was unnecessarily disgusting. My bad.

As I continued to wash myself off, I noticed that Shaun had also decided to join me in finally getting clean. My little theory was correct: the burn marks on his fur were now completely gone, taken away with the water. Of course, neither of us were really getting a chance to enjoy the water as a cleansing experience, as we were both constantly on the receiving end of an endless bombardment of 'tidal waves' provided to us by the hyperactive grade/middle-schoolers we were sharing the lake with. I swam off to the other side of the pool to get away from the splashing, whereas I found Nate sitting on a rock that protruded out into the lake a bit, almost like a natural dock. Judging by the way his fur was shining in the morning rays, it was safe to say that he had already taken advantage of the lake as an opportunity to wash up and was now serving as a lifeguard for everyone else.

"So," I began, looking up at him from the water, "did you find this place all by yourself or what?"

"Nah," Nate replied, "Liz found it first. We were out looking for breakfast together and she stumbled across this whole thing."

When Nate mentioned Liz, I took a moment to look around. For the first time, I realized that Liz was nowhere to be found!

"Say, where _is_ Liz, anyway?" I asked, "For the person who found this, she certainly didn't spend a lot of time here!"

"I think she followed the river down a bit," Nate explained, "she's a girl, after all, so I guess sharing a huge lake with nine other guys isn't exactly her cup of tea."

I suppose Nate was right. I never liked 'community' anythings, either. I choose to blame it on a 'College Tour' my high school went on where I was introduced to the horror that is community showers. I'll spare you the details of that traumatizing event, but let's just say that, after walking into a bathroom and seeing, in full view of everyone, the pasty white butt of a freshman geek right next to a senior jock's... whole package, I ran screaming out of that first ring of Hell (hey, it is _not_ a swear word if I'm referring to the place!) and vowed to use a _lot_ of deodorant and body spray for the rest of the week. It was bad enough sharing such things with people of the same gender; poor Liz would have to deal with a bunch of kids whose hormones are _just_ starting to kick in! Little wonder why she would balk at the idea.

"Actually," Nate continued, "maybe you should try to find out where she went. I want to get all the kids out of the water so we can press on, so someone needs to relay the message to her."

"Okay, sounds good to me," I answered, grabbing onto the edge of the rock and pulling myself out of the lake, "I think I'm good for a week or so before I have to take another bath."

As I walked along the shoreline until I reached where the lake entered into the river, I found myself shaking the remnant water off of my fur much like a real-life canine does. It was weird how some of the more animalistic instincts were kicking in subconsciously on me. Wasn't I just a human in a furry body? Why were things that weren't natural for me to do before suddenly happening now, without my conscious knowing, no less? Musta come with the wolf suit, I guess. Still, it was a little unsettling: what if, eventually, I forgot my human origins completely?

"Hey, Matt! A little help here! These kids think it's funny to pull on my antlers until I'm underwater!"

Ah, leave it to Shaun to lighten the mood. The big clown was currently swimming frantically to the shore before another kid could grab onto his horns and give him another full-submersion baptism. I decided to answer his plea for help by extending my right hand, allowing him to grab on and pull himself up out of the water.

"Phew! Thanks, Matt," Shaun panted, grabbing his vest hanging from a nearby branch and putting it on, "if those kids kept that up, I swear I was gonna start hearing the drowning music from the Sonic games!"

The deer then watched as I continued to head off into the woods, following the river.

"Hey, where ya going?"

"I'm looking for Liz," I explained, "Nate said she wasn't a big fan of the whole 'bath time with the boys' thing and she headed off to find a more private area."

"So what? You gonna play Peeping Tom or something?"

The sudden realization of how awkward my previous statement must've sounded hit me like a flaming arrow to the chest (obvious reference to _Sonic and the Secret Rings_ completely and utterly intentional).

"GAH!!! I mean... Uh... NO! That's not what I meant! Nate wants me to find her and tell her that we're getting ready to leave!"

"Oh, gotcha..." Shaun replied, "Mind if I come? I'd rather be with you than be stuck with those antler-grabbers."

Antler-grabbers. That's a new one.

"Sure, you can come," I answered, "it would be a little lonely otherwise."

The two of us marched on, following the river. I suppose 'river' might be a bit too generous of a term; it was more like a creek or a stream than anything else. The path alongside it wasn't all that well-marked, either; we found ourselves climbing over small boulders and fallen branches the entire way.

"Ugh! Geez!" I moaned as I stubbed my toe against another rock (it was a good thing I was wearing my shoes), "How many of these confounded hunks of slate are there!?"

"Actually..." Shaun corrected, pointing at the piece of landmass in front of me, "That is a granite rock. See the speckles of granulates in it?"

"Okay, how do you know all this stuff?" I asked, still a little peeved about hurting my foot on slate or granite or whatever the heck it was.

"When your dad's a scientist, you tend to learn these things," Shaun explicated.

"A scientist?" I repeated.

"Yep! Not one of those ones making earth-shattering discoveries or anything, but he does a lot of research and development, especially in the environmental department."

"Which would explain your love of the Boy Scouts and knowledge in all things natural..." I concluded, "... But not your excessive clumsiness."

"Hey! What are you talking about!? I'm not clum--- WHOA!!!"

Almost as if on cue, the klutz tripped over a log and fell forward, right into me. This caused _me_ to fall over, and we soon found ourselves tumbling downhill, bouncing off of about twenty different rocks, branches, and bushes along the way. Eventually, we came to a not-so-graceful stop as I found myself staring at... a blue tank top? Wasn't that Liz's? I groggily got up on my feet, pulled the blue article of clothing off my face, and nearly had my eyes pop out of their sockets.

Right in front of us, sitting in what looked like a natural hot spring, was a totally naked Liz.

I stared blankly at her for about three seconds, my brain not exactly computing what was entering my eyeballs. I then dumbfoundedly turned to my left, where Shaun was just getting up onto his own two feet, with a pair of denim shorts hanging from his antlers. We stared at each other for about three seconds before we both turned back to Liz.

Finally, after ten seconds, we all let out a huge scream.

Liz hysterically sank into the water until the bubbles were touching her chin. I frantically threw her tank top at her and ran in the opposite direction. Finding all escape routes seemingly blocked by trees, I made due by doing my best ostrich impression and burring my head under a shrub, my tail instinctively curling up between my legs. From this position I couldn't see anything else that was going on (thank God), but from what I could hear, it seemed that Shaun wasn't doing anything except standing there, probably still paralyzed with shock.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING!?" I heard Liz shriek, "I'M TRYING TO TAKE A BATH HERE!!!"

"I... Uh... Um... You see... Er..." Shaun sputtered, running on all cylinders but with the emergency brake in place, "Erm... I... Didn't... See... Anything?"

"What do you _mean_ you didn't see anything!?" Liz retorted, "You two came barging in here while I was relaxing in this spring without any clothes on!"

"But... Ah... You're... A reptile?"

"What's being a reptile have anything to do with it!?"

"Reptiles... Don't nurture their young..."

"_SO_!?"

"You... Wouldn't have _boobs_ then!"

Remember how I said that Shaun would probably wind up in a body cast before this was over?

Judging by the noise Liz made right then, I was pretty sure he was going to be lucky if that's _all_ she did to him.

* * *

"I still can't believe you two stumbled onto Liz in a hot spring," Nate sighed, shaking his head in disbelief.

"Id wadn't my fault!" I protested, holding my bloody nose to keep the bleeding to a minimum, "Shaun trid oder a log and bumped indo me!"

I'm pretty sure Shaun would've tried to defend himself too, but he was still unconscious at the moment. Because of my awkward attempt at chivalry (if you call throwing a garment at a naked woman and covering one's eyes chivalrous), Liz repaid me by _only_ decking me in the nose. Shaun, on the other hand, didn't exactly help himself with his pathetically assembled biology lesson. Besides still being in la la land, he also had two black eyes (he looked oddly like a raccoon now), his antlers were now equal length again since Liz took of a half-inch from the other antler, and, from what I saw, I'm pretty sure he won't be able to father children. Lesson learned? Don't tell an enraged lizard that your inadvertent peeping session was justified because she anatomically doesn't have anything to look at!

At any rate, I really didn't want to have Liz hate my guts for the rest of this whirlwind adventure. Therefore, I got up and attempted to find where she went. It didn't take long: I found her a ten minute walk away, still fuming (and fully clothed), leaning against a tree. Now, I may not be the most suave person on the face of the earth (erm... Mobius), but I knew that I had to be careful trying to talk to her. One slip up and she'd probably go for the eyes next, and I _really_ have no desire to look like Wolf O'Donnell, thank you very much.

"So... Ud..." I began, mentally kicking myself when I realized my bloody nose was going to make this even harder than I originally thought, "I'm realdy sorrdy about dat whole hod spring ding..."

Liz let out a long, exasperated sigh. Uh oh.

"I suppose I kinda overreacted," Liz confessed, "but... You know... I wasn't really expecting a couple of guys dropping in on me in that..."

"Radder compromising posidion?" I completed for her. If this stupid bloody nose didn't heal fast...

"Yeah... And Mr. Biology's little spiel didn't exactly help matters either."

I braced my arm against the same tree she was leaning on, using my other hand to try and get all the bloody boogers out of my nostrils. Sure, it wasn't exactly tactful, but neither was sounding like I had a watermelon wedged up my nose. As I looked at Liz while doing this oh-so-dignified activity, I noticed that her little natural hot tub didn't really help much: while it had certainly washed off the week's worth of traveling she did, her scales were still all chapped up. Weird. What, was she going to look like that until she molted or something?

I'd ask her, but Shaun pretty much proved that asking someone about the idiosyncrasies of their species usually only gets a sock in the eye (and a kick to the balls) as an answer.

"It must be really hard being the only girl here," I commented, finally talking like a normal person again (hallelujah).

Liz turned and looked at me. She seemed a little less tense than she was before.

"Well, with the exception of the occasional feminine hygiene incident, I think I've been handling it rather well."

Odd. She was leaping at my jugular about ten minutes ago and now she's acting like nothing ever happened. I wish more people were like that. God knows how many teachers still hold onto some stupid thing I did years ago, like the time I accidentally locked the chem. teacher in the walk-in freezer, which wouldn't have been so bad if I hadn't already soaked him earlier in the day with the emergency shower in the lab. You know, the one usually reserved for students who somehow manage to set themselves on fire?

I swear, I'm innocent on all accounts. It was a series of _very_ unfortunate events.

My teacher didn't think so, though. Once he recovered from frostbite, I found myself redirected to a physics class. Of course, that has some interesting stories of its own, but I'll save those for another time.

Where were we? Ah, yes... Liz. It seemed like she had already forgiven me for what I did. There wasn't a trace of anger in her eyes at all.

"So... Um... You don't, like, hate me or anything?" I stammered.

"Nah. You saw me naked, I punched you in the nose. I'd say we're even."

"Uh... Does this mean you're gonna hit me every time I screw something up?"

There was an awkward silence followed by the two of us suddenly bursting out in laughter.

"No... No..." Liz finally made out after the laughter died down, "Not unless you find something worse than sneaking a peek on me."

"Unintentionally," I added.

Well, I certainly felt better now. Here I thought we were going to have a long dissertation about something or another. Instead, she practically accepted my apology as soon as I said it. Note to self: this is a good trait to look for in a girlfriend.

Actually... Naw, Liz isn't all that into me (the whole peeping thing probably didn't help) and besides, once this is over, I'm never gonna see her again, right? Best just forget about romantic endeavors until I get back to planet Earth. Still, she was kinda cute... for a lizard.

While I was contemplating my love life (or lack thereof), I aimlessly picked up a small rock and tossed into what I thought was more dense forest. However, as soon as the pebble hit a few ferns, an insane amount of sunlight came pouring into the forest. Both Liz and I noticed it, so we abandoned our post at the tree and went over to where I threw the rock. As we pushed a few evergreen branches aside, we both gasped.

On the other side of the trees was the end of the woods.

Literally, it was like there was a line of trees, with forest on one side but not on the other. Instead, there were rolling green hills, pristine lakes, and a cloudless sky. This went on for what seemed like miles, with the very faint sights of a city skyline on the furthest horizon.

In fact, if it wasn't for the lack of loops and spikes, I'd almost say it was the Green Hill Zone.

We stared at this sudden change in environment in awestruck wonder. No words where shared between the two of us, but we both thought the same thing: run back and tell the others.

We sprinted off almost simultaneously, reaching the rest of the group in about five mintues. When we got there, Nate had gotten all the kids out of the water, and Shaun was finally starting to come to. However, upon seeing Liz, he understandably freaked out.

"GAA!!!" Shaun shrieked, promptly shielding his face from another frontal assault, "I'M SORRY! I DIDN'T MEAN IT! YOU HAVE VERY NICE BOOBS!"

"Excuse me?" Liz quipped, raising a nonexistent eyebrow.

"Look, guys, this is important!" I intervened, not wanting Shaun to stick his foot... erm... hoof into his mouth any further, "We found the end to this blasted forest!"

"Really?" Shaun asked, completely forgetting about Liz, "Ah ha! So I _was_ right! I told you that the plants were more familiar with the edges of a..."

"Yeah, Shaun, we know," Nate interrupted, "anyway... So, you found the way outta here?"

We both nodded 'yes'.

"Great! Lead the way."

* * *

It certainly didn't take us long to get back to where we were before, although the ankle-biters slowed us down a bit. This time, I decided to get a tad dramatic and push the excess branches aside like a curtain to reveal the plains beyond. The result was a huge collection of gasps by the kids, a 'Yahoo!' by Shaun, and a whistle of impressiveness by Nate.

"Wow..." Nate whispered, "Finally... We're outta the woods. Well then, let's go. Our next stop:" he pointed towards the horizon, "that city."

For the first time since we got there, we finally stepped out of that stupid forest and onto the massive fields full of rolling hills and deep valleys. As we walked onward, I could feel the wind at my back, almost pushing me forward. In response, I began to subconsciously pick up the pace a little, until my walk turned into a brisk jog. When I realized this, I turned to my partners and noticed that they, too, were walking much faster than before. Even the kids were moving rather vigorously. Stranger still, I felt almost... _Euphoric_? Just from running?

"Um, Nate?" I asked, "Is it just me, or do you also feel something... I dunno... Pleasurable about this?"

"Hey! We're Sonic characters!" Nate replied, a grin on his face that almost looked like the Blue Blur's, "What do _all_ Sonic characters like to do?"

I opened my mouth to respond, but I was cut off when Liz suddenly passed us, the biggest smile on her face I have ever seen.

"RUN!" she squealed with delight, blasting on ahead of us.

"Ack! Wait up, Liz!" Shaun protested, "No fair! My antlers don't make me as aerodynamic as you!"

Apparently not. Poor Shaun found himself getting outrun by all the little tykes, who took Liz's lead and went from jogging to flat-out sprinting. However, Shaun leaned forward, making himself lower to the ground, and soon was catching up to, and passing, the kids. During all this, neither I nor Nate had gone any faster, so we were now taking up the rear.

"Whoa! No way am I gonna be in last!" Nate laughed, lunging ahead, "See ya, Matt!"

"Wha?... Hey!" I shouted, "Wait for me!"

I immediately kicked it into high gear, easily catching up with everybody else, but why stop there? I soon found myself pumping my legs even harder, going even faster than before and leaving everyone in the dust.

Speed, of course, plays a huge role in Sonic's world. I mean, even the lazy, fat characters like Big still manage to pull off something like 40 MPH. Me? I certainly didn't have any accurate way of measuring my speed, but somehow, I could just _tell_ how fast I was going, like it was some sort of instinct. The tailwind that had started all of this was all but nonexistent. Instead, the air I was feeling now was that which was passing by me as I easily pushed 60 MPH... 70... 80...

I felt my body lean forward and my legs pump even harder. My arms, which until now had been in front of me like a sprinter, suddenly shot back so that they were behind me, the way Sonic runs. In this position, I felt myself going 90 MPH... 100...

Everything around me was a blur. The scenery to my sides were nothing but green and blue streaks and yet, right in front of me, I could see what was approaching clearly. Furthermore, I still had the reflexes to dodge out of the way if a small rock or some other obstacle was dead ahead even as I went 110 MPH... 120...

Why wasn't I getting tired? I never had this endurance when I was human. Heck, I barely manage to finish the mile run every year for that stupid Presidential Physical Fitness Test. I usually cross the finish line, gagging and spitting up, only to be told that I didn't even clear the ten minute mark. Not so here. I wasn't getting tired. In fact, I felt _invigorated_. The speed, the wind in my face, the adrenaline in my legs _stimulated_ me to run even faster to 130 MPH... 140... 150...

At this mark, something in my body told me that this was my limit; that 150 MPH was my maximum speed. This was the speed that characters like Tails could run at. Even Knuckles would be eating my dust at this point. Sonic? No way, he's _way_ faster than this. Sonic can top 760 MPH without breaking a sweat. I wonder what running at that speed must feel like? Nevertheless, this was still an experience that _nothing_ could replicate. Roller coasters, race cars, rockets... Riding in one of those wouldn't even come close to this feeling of pure ecstasy.

Curious as to how my friends were holding up, I turned my head to the side a little, being careful as to not suddenly have it snap back at such a high speed. Surprisingly, some of them were able to keep up. None of the little ones where there, of course, but Nate and I were neck-to-neck and Liz was actually a short distance _ahead_ of me. I guess having no fur cuts down on wind resistance or something.

"Wow!" I shouted, almost unable to hear my own voice over the wind rushing past my ears, "So this is what it's like to run like Sonic!"

"Yeah!" Nate replied, "I don't think I'll ever be able to play another Sonic game and get any real 'sense of speed' ever again!"

We both laughed loudly, simply letting ourselves enjoy the elation that running gave us. Soon, I closed my eyes (a rather dumb risk, now that I think about it) and simply took in the sound of what pure speed was.

However, my lupine ears suddenly picked up something in the distance. It was something I could have never heard as a human, at such a high speed or otherwise, but my heightened senses received it easily. It was a high-pitched voice, like that of a young girl, screaming.

"HELP! SOMEBODY, PLEASE HELP!"

I immediately slammed on the breaks. I was expecting one of Newton's Laws to suddenly come back to haunt me by causing all my internal organs to come flying out of my chest or something, but, surprisingly, I felt no ill effects from the sudden decrease in motion. The worst that happened was that the delight of running quickly dissolved away, but that kinda already happened when I heard the cry for help.

Apparently, everyone's reflexes were as good as mine, as they all began to promptly come to a full and complete stop not long after I did. Some were not as graceful as others, though: Shaun fell face-forward and got his antlers embedded in the ground.

"Whoa! Everything alright, Matt?" Nate asked, easily spotting the sudden look of concern on my face.

"I heard someone yelling... Over there somewhere!" I explained pointing to where I had heard the scream.

The entire band of us ran over to the source of the distress call (Shaun took up the rear, for obvious reasons). Eventually, we found ourselves overlooking a small cliff. Down below was what almost looked like a quarry, but there wasn't any mining equipment, so it ultimately was just some random giant hole in the ground. We weren't all that concerned with what we were looking _in_, however. Rather, it was what we were looking _at_.

Huddled against one of the dirt pit's steep walls, slowly being advanced upon by one of Eggman's robots, was a _very_ familiar face: Cream the Rabbit.


	6. Chapter 6

Down in the pit below, the robot continued its slow but steady walk towards Cream. Thankfully, the hulking mass of metal and wires didn't seem to show any signs of acknowledgement of our presence, and Cream was far too focused on the immediate threat to see us, either.

"Well, this is just great!" Mike grumbled, "First Sonic character we come across is that wimpy little Cream!? Give me a break! Let's just leave her there!"

Nate glared daggers at the tiger cub (and I certainly don't blame him).

"We are NOT going to just leave her there!" Nate retorted, "We gotta help her!"

"Why? She's a dumb character, anyway."

"Because... It's the right thing to do!"

The right thing to do... How corny, cliché, and yet oddly fitting for our fearless leader. At any rate, Nate whipped out his staff and began to make his way carefully down into the pit. About halfway down, he turned back up to me. Uh oh.

"Matt! Get down here and cover me, okay?"

Somehow, I knew that was coming.

Regardless, I started to climb down into the pit after Nate. I guess I figured that, hey, it _was_ the right thing to do (although _I_ probably would've called for help or something rather than throw _myself_ on the grenade) and besides, we could defeat one robot easily enough: Nate punches holes in the thing, I throw water at it, and everyone gets what they deserve. Simple, right?

Wrong.

First off, if we were expecting any kind of dramatic entrance, Shaun happily ruined it for us. The big goofball was leaning out _way_ too far over the edge while he was watching us descend and, of course, lost his balance. Virtually replicating the exact situation as before when he sent us sprawling into Liz's bath time, he tumbled head-over-heels into me, which in turn sent me flying into Nate, causing all three of us, in total Three Stooges fashion, to land face-first into the bottom of the pit. So much for that extra shot of adrenaline we were hoping for.

Obviously, the robot noticed us by now (it would have to have been a pretty unobservant robot if it didn't). As we slowly got back up to our feet, it turned away from Cream and was now facing us. Even worse, we immediately realized that it wasn't like any robot we had faced before.

So far in our whirl-wind adventure, all the enemies we faced I recognized from _some_ Sonic continuity, whether it be in the games (Egg Pawns) or somewhere else (SWATbots). On the other hand, this thing was in a whole different ballpark. Technically, the robot looked like it was from Eggy's 'E-Series' of robots, where we were introduced to such classics like Gamma or Omega (flat head with two beady eyes, claw-like fingers, undoubtedly hidden collection of massive firearms, etc). However, this bugger was definitely a brand new robot in that said series. Along with a black-and-red paint job that seemed to totally rip-off of Shadow, this robot had ridiculously huge fists connected to his body via short, but thick arms and feet that would make David Beckham, Mia Hamm, and that head-butting French guy jealous (read: they were big). I think it was safe to say this thing was a one-man wrecking crew that let his hands and feet do the talking. He was kinda like Knuckles, I guess… Minus the gullibility and the horrible voice-acting.

Of course, all that that left us with was just his tendency to smash anything that moves into mincemeat. Fun.

"Hey, bucket head!" Nate taunted, motioning to the robot to come at us, "Why don't you pick on someone your own size?"

"Uh... You mean you, right?" Shaun asked, "'Cuz if you think _I'm_ gonna fight this thing..."

Poor Shaun didn't even get a chance to finish his thought. Before any of us knew it, the robot rocketed over to the deer and punched him in the face. Hard. Heck, the hit sent him flying into the far wall and immediately put him out of commission!

Seriously, getting knocked out twice in one day? That can't be good for his long-term memory. The _last_ thing we need is Shaun with amnesia. The guy's forgetful enough as is.

With Shaun out of the way, the robot suddenly turned its attention to me, apparently realizing I was the only other one without a weapon.

Dang.

The giant tin can lunged towards me, hands winding up for another clobber. Nate tried to stand in its way and persuade it to fight him rather than my poor, unarmed self, but the robot was determined to take me out first. It shoved Nate off to the side and continued its pursuit towards me. Now, I don't know about you, but when something is pretty much out for my blood, the last thing I'd do is stand still. Therefore, as the robot took its first swing at me, I nimbly dodged the blow and rolled out of its way.

Hey, when the sport you're best at is dodgeball, you know how to duck and cover like a pro. I happened to regularly be the last man standing on my team in every gym class, although this was usually accompanied by screams of, "Just let yourself get hit! We wanna get another game in!" from my fellow classmates. Bah, they're just jealous.

At any rate, when I got back up onto my feet, I was about ten yards away from the metal monstrosity. Odd... That's an awfully long distance to cover in a simple dodge roll. Normally, I cover maybe two feet tops. That's when I remembered: I'm a Sonic character now! What does every single stinkin' Sonic character have? The spin-dash! Even lard-butt Big was able to do a basic form of that in _Sonic Heroes_! What I thought was just a dodge roll must've been a spin-dash that propelled me that far away!

Then, a dawn of realization came to me. Sonic uses that move to smash those robots... Why can't I do the same?

"Um... Excuse me? Are you okay?"

I whirled around and saw Cream, staring up at me with a look of concern in her ridiculously huge eyes. Also, I noticed for the first time that she had a companion with her. Gravitating around her head like a tiny planet was her little pet chao, Cheese.

I gulped subconsciously. I was having a face-to-face encounter with a Sonic character! For real! Quick, say something cool!

"Uh... Yeah, I'm fine, thanks. What about you? That robot didn't hurt you, did it?"

Oh gosh. Lame. Lame. Lame.

"No, We're alright!" Cream assured, nodding politely.

"Chao! Chao!" Cheese agreed (or, at least, I _think_ he agreed...).

"Thank you for coming to help us, Mr..."

"It's Mathew," I answered for her, "but please, just call me Matt."

"Okay, Mr. Mathew!" Cream chirped, completely ignoring my request. You know, as nice as she is, Cream's not really all that intelligent. Her cuteness must be what keeps the fans from keelhauling her (something they really should've considered when they made Chris Thorndike).

Suddenly, I noticed that the expression on her face changed from one of gratitude to one of terror. Cheese, meanwhile, started pointing at something behind me, screaming all the while like Pikachu on a sugar high.

I think that's a pretty safe sign that something _really_ bad was behind me, wouldn't you think? Ten bucks says it's something involving the robot that I, rather stupidly, keep my eyes off of this entire time.

I looked back at the robot and what I saw nearly caused my heart to stop: It was pummeling Nate! Somehow, it had managed to disarm him (judging by the fact that his wooden staff was on the ground a short distance away), and was now punching and kicking him over and over while he was lying on the dirt, trying to block the blows. I guess the gigantic hunk of metal decided that Nate, now all alone, would be a much easier target than a one-on-three fight with a wolf, a rabbit, and a little blue thing whose main attack involved throwing himself at his opponents like a little blue missile.

I think it's time to prove that robot wrong with my newly discovered maneuver, eh?

I crouched down, tucking my head as much in between my legs as possible, much like how Sonic always appeared to do in the old games. Okay, so now what? Just roll forward? No, Sonic somehow revs up, spinning around ferociously and yet not moving forward an inch, before basting straight ahead like a living cannonball. How am I supposed to do that exactly?

Once again, my ever-so-mysterious animal instincts answered for me.

Without any warning, I felt myself 'fall' forward, only to summersault around and face upward again, not moving towards the robot at all. This happened again. And again. And again. Each time, I went faster than the last until my vision changed from watching the world spin around me to it only being a blur. Right as I was starting to worry about not being able to see anything in particular (as well as why hadn't I thrown up yet), my view flickered, and then I could once again see Nate and the robot in front of me. However, now it was constantly flickering and was accompanied by a weird 'streaking' effect, which I presumed was some sort of motion blur. It almost looked like the view in front of me was some sort of flip-book animation.

Suddenly, I heard a sound... It was almost like a 'Pop!'... and the feeling of spinning around was quickly compounded with the feeling of rocketing forward at top speed. I've never exactly wondered what it must feel like to be a human cannonball in a circus, but I'm pretty sure I'll never have to now. I didn't get much time to savor the experience, though: It all happened in about 2.5 seconds. However, I did learn three important things: First, when in a spin-dash, I can smash through any robot without any form of resistance whatsoever; I was like, if you would pardon the horribly overused cliché, a hot knife through butter. Secondly, and quite unfortunately, I realized that _stopping_ from a spin-dash was dang near impossible. Finally, I quickly discovered that, while metal is no problem, I can't use a spin-dash to drill though a dirt wall.

The sudden throb of pain through my head, the sound of at least twenty bones in my head and neck region doing _something_ I'm sure couldn't have been natural, and the immediate black out as my body collided with the wall was a pretty sure sign of that last fact.

* * *

When I came back to reality, I quickly realized I wasn't in that dirt pit anymore. Rather I was in... A _bedroom_? Could I... Could I be home!?

Of course not. As soon as I turned my head to look around, I got an eyeful of a huge, gray tail. The plus side: The fact that I could _move_ my head was a sign that I didn't shatter anything in my spinal cord when, you know, I smashed my noggin against a wall. Relief from the fear of paralysis aside, where was I?

"Oh, are you awake?"

I quickly turned my head to the other side of the bed. Sitting in a rocking chair next to the bed was Cream's mother, Vanilla!

"Uh, yeah..." I moaned, "Man, that's the last time I spin-dash in close-quarters."

As soon as I said this, I felt another throb go through my brain. Man... I've passed out twice, Shaun got knocked out cold two times, and Liz got rendered unconscious once. We would be a neurologist's nightmare (or dream, if he needed the extra cash). I guess Vanilla noticed me wincing in pain, as she reached down, picked up a damp rag, and gingerly placed it on my forehead.

"Please, relax," the rabbit mother suggested, "you shouldn't stress yourself. You took quite a beating out there."

"How long have I been out?" I asked, using my hand to keep the rag on my head.

"Hmm... Well, I'd say about two days."

Two days!? Good grief... That's a new record for our time here.

While I was busy comprehending the situation, the bedroom door slowly creaked open. A huge pair of eyes, obviously Cream's, poked in through the opening and was soon joined by another pair, Cheese's, floating above them. Once they saw that I was awake, they immediately ran into the room and probably would've jumped on the bed had her mom not stop them.

"You're awake! You're awake!" Cream cheered.

"Chao! Chao! Chao!" Cheese continued.

"Hey, you two!" I greeted, patting the rabbit girl on the head, "You okay?"

"Yep, thanks to you! Thank you for trashing that nasty robot, Mr. Mathew!"

"Chao! Chao!"

See, Mike? _This_ is how you thank someone for saving your life! Cream could teach that tiger cub a thing or two.

"I also thank you for helping my daughter," Vanilla added, "that was a very brave thing for you to do."

"Well, you should really thank Nate," I corrected, "he's the one who dragged me in there."

Bringing up Nate made me remember that, the last time I saw him, he was getting the snot beaten out of him by that robot!

"Ack! Nate!" I sputtered, "Where's Nate!? Please tell me he's okay!"

"Don't worry," came a familiar voice from the doorway, "he'll live to fight another day."

The door swung open the entire way, revealing Nate, Shaun, and Liz all standing outside!

"Hey! Guys! You're all alright!" I cheered, shooting straight up in bed. This proved to be a bad move, as about ten gazillion different things began to hurt at the same time. This caused me to shout in pain and quickly fall back into my former position.

"Please, you shouldn't exhaust yourself," Vanilla reminded me, "you're still recovering. After all, you were the only one we had to carry back here."

"Me?" I repeated, slightly confused, "Didn't Shaun get knocked out, too?"

"Actually…" the deer interrupted, "I just pretended to be unconscious, and the robot actually fell for it! Pretty clever, no?"

"That would definitely be a 'no'," Liz murmured, obviously not impressed with Shaun's way of avoiding combat, "if intelligence and cowardness ever spawned a kid, it would be you."

"Hey! I resent that! You know what they say, 'He who fights and runs away, lives to fight another day!'"

"Uh huh… Except for you, it's just, 'lives to run away again.'"

"I can't win with this girl…" Shaun mumbled under his breath.

Once the deer and the lizard were done exchanging verbal blows, Nate took over the conversation again.

"At any rate, I should thank you for helping me out back there. If you hadn't stepped in, I'm not sure how much longer I could've lasted."

"Well, you certainly don't look like the type of person who just got pummeled by a robot…" I commented, observing his complete lack of any 'war wounds', "That robot didn't break any bones or anything?"

"Actually, he did…" Nate replied, holding up his hand to show that three of his fingers were wrapped in gauze, "And judging by how painful it is to walk, I'm guessing he must've fractured something in my leg, but I can still stand, at least. Cream's mom is a pretty darn good medic, if I do say so myself. Even better than Shaun."

"I heard that," Shaun grunted.

Ignoring Shaun (par usual) I noticed, for the first time, that Nate had been leaning on his staff like a walking stick. Furthermore, his leg was also badly bruised. I mean, when you can see the black-and-blue through a thick coat of fur, that's a pretty good indicator that someone got beaten up _bad_. Funny, Sonic never went though this much pain when he fought armies of robots. The worst that would happen is that he would lose all those shiny gold rings.

Then again, I suppose the innocence of the games died after the village incident. We weren't playing in a game where we could just hit 'Continue' if we goof up. That was pretty obvious before, but this just continued to drive the point home.

"Well, you were all very brave people out there," Vanilla complimented, "all of you fought valiantly to save my daughter, and you have my eternal gratitude for that."

"Heh, it was nothing!" I replied (as what was perhaps the biggest lie in the history of the world... and Mobius), "It was the right thing to do! Right, Nate?"

"Right," my friend agreed.

At this point, Cream pulled herself up on the side of the bed and stared at me with her huge, saucer eyes.

"Wow! That sounds like something Mr. Sonic would say!"

"Really? Sonic?" I blurted out. I guess I was just a little shocked at the sudden realization: She knew Sonic! Duh! Maybe, just maybe, we could meet him with her help! Sure, the whole idea of running into the cannon characters was a little cliché, but hey, we've been wandering around for nearly two weeks nearly getting captured and/or killed. I think we're entitled to finally meet the blue guy himself, huh?

"So..." I began, "You know Sonic?"

The little rabbit girl nodded.

"Cool! I've _always_ wanted to meet him! Do you know where he is?"

Cream's smile faded a bit and she looked nervously down at the floor. Huh? What's going on?

"We don't know what happened to him..." Cream whispered, almost inaudibly, as a reply, "He simply disappeared one night two weeks ago."


	7. Chapter 7

I was pretty sure I could feel my left eye twitching as soon as Cream sputtered those words. Sonic just... Disappeared? During the night? _Two weeks ago_? Could it have been related to our... No, it couldn't have... Could it?

"He _disappeared_?" I repeated, "Sonic, the Fastest Thing Alive, the Blue Blur, the... the hero of _Mobius_ just up and disappeared!?"

"Y... Yes..." Cream replied, obviously reliving a painful memory, "And Mr. Knuckles as well... And Ms. Amy and... and..."

She buried her head in her hands and began sobbing.

"And... Tails, too..." she managed to whimper out before totally losing it.

"Uh... Um... I'm sorry..." I sputtered, doing my best to apologize after realizing the huge can of worms I just opened, "I didn't know..."

That didn't stop the waterworks. Instead, Cream simply ran out of the room (nearly plowing over Nate, Liz, and Shaun) with Cheese quickly following behind. Even then, I could still hear her begin bawling even more out in the hallway. Oh great, I just made _Cream_ have an emotional breakdown. I am _so_ going to Hell for that one (or whatever Mobius' version of Hell is... I'm sure the comics came up with something). I glanced at Vanilla, who was also looking out the door with pain on her face. After a moment, she turned back to me. She still looked sad, but she didn't seem angry at me for inadvertently giving her daughter too much grief to bear.

Then again, after spending time with Liz, my definition of not looking angry is pretty much that Vanilla didn't try to castrate (neuter?) me.

"Oh dear..." Vanilla sighed, "She still hasn't gotten over it... I feel so sorry for her..."

"Uh..." I murmured, trying to figure out what would be the most tactful way to probe the situation further, "I really didn't mean to do that. Honest. But... You see... We've kinda been... Um... 'Out of town' for a while... _What's_ going on, exactly!?"

The older rabbit bowed her head down. I guess she was as sad about whatever the heck was going on as well, but she was doing a much better job keeping it in than Cream was.

"A month or so ago, reports began sprouting up about people simply vanishing in the middle of the night," Vanilla explained, "at first, it was ordinary citizens, but then Mr. Shadow disappeared, followed by Ms. Rouge the next day and Mr. Knuckles the next. Then, Ms. Amy vanished and Cream became really worried, since she was her best friend. When Tails went, my daughter was completely devastated."

The fanbrat within me was screaming, "Ha! Tails/Cream _is_ canon! Eat it, Cosmo fans!" but I refrained from verbalizing it. Usually, when that little corner of my mind starts acting up, I introduce it to my self-patented 'Fanbrat Bat,' more commonly known as a nice, solid wall, but I figured I had taken enough brain damage from my erratic spin-dash stunt, so I simply forced it out of my conscious and continued listening to Vanilla.

"Sonic was one of the last ones to disappear. The day before he vanished, he showed up at our house and promised Cream that he would find his 'little brother,' along with everyone else, no matter what. I suppose that, maybe, in a way, he did. I just wish we knew where they all were."

Vanilla then got up and made her way towards the door. However, before she left (presumably to calm Cream down), I called out to her.

"Wait! Just one more question: How many people disappeared in total?"

The mother paused for a moment to think it over.

"Fourteen, I think," she replied, "one a day for two weeks."

With that, she left the room. As soon as she was gone, Nate, Shaun, and Liz rushed in and quickly shut the door. We were all speechless for about a minute, trying to compute everything that just transpired. Eventually, Shaun was the first to talk.

"Dude, you made Cream _cry_."

"Please tell me that wasn't the _only_ thing you were thinking about in the past minute, Shaun," Liz groaned.

"Come on, Liz! He just made a little bunny girl bawl her eyes out! That's about the equivalent of kicking a stray puppy into oncoming traffic!"

"As much as I'd love to discuss the evilness of making a cute character cry," Nate interrupted, "we have some more important things to do."

Nate went and sat on the edge of my bed. Liz quickly followed suit and Shaun proceeded to _try_ and do the same only to wind up sitting on my _leg_. I promptly kicked him to the floor with my free leg, and he wisely decided to stay down there.

"Okay, let's see if I got this straight..." Nate began, "At the same time we were getting sent from Earth to Mobius, Sonic and co. were disappearing, too."

"And I'm going to take a wild guess and say that they're on Earth now," Liz added.

"I wonder if they're still animals or if they're human now?" Shaun speculated, "I mean, _we_ turned into anthros when we popped up here, so does that mean they turned into humans?"

This conversation was starting to bug me. The situation just seemed eerily familiar. Of course, I already knew that what _we_ were going through was an awful lot like all those horrible self-insert fics that spawn indefinitely on the web, but what Sonic was hypothetically experiencing...

Oh for cryin' out loud, that's ridiculous. Sure, our time here on Mobius was a lot like a self-insert story, but that didn't, by any means, prove what Sonic was going through. Jumping from our experience to saying that Sonic was pulling a 'OMGosh! Sonic's a human in the real world!' was a bit of a stretch, wasn't it? For all we knew, everyone could've been rotting in a jail cell in one of Eggman's forts. It certainly made more sense, at any rate.

"Guys," I interjected, "can we forget about trying to figure out where Sonic is?"

"Why?" Liz asked.

"I dunno... I just don't see the point. I mean, what good does it do us? The important thing is that Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, and anyone else we were hoping would help us is gone. We've got Cream and... Not much else."

"So we're in a Mobius with no one but Cream and Dr. Robotnik," Shaun concluded, "that blows."

"Well, just because the main characters are gone doesn't mean that everyone is," Nate countered, "I mean, who do we know is gone? Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Amy, Shadow, and Rouge. Okay, fine, but what about the Chaotix? The Freedom Fighters?"

"... Assuming the Freedom Fighters exist in this freaky hybrid of a Mobius," Liz added.

"True, but if there are SWATbots, there's gotta be the Freedom Fighters, right? What I'm saying is, there are still people out there who can help us, even if the Blue Blur is nowhere to be seen."

"Still, that just seems kinda lame..." Shaun lamented, "I mean, we're on _Mobius_, and we can't see Sonic!? It's like---"

Liz promptly put a hand over Shaun's mouth.

"No more analogies. _Please_," she ordered.

"Mo may," Shaun muffled, which I assumed was his attempt at saying 'okay' with a scaly hand over his mouth.

"Well, we can't do anything until Matt recovers," Nate concluded, "so I guess we'll just spend a little more time here until you feel ready to go, okay?"

"Fine by me," I replied, "considering that I can't move anything besides my head without causing immense pain, though, I think we might be here a while."

"That's okay, I need a break from all that hiking in the woods, anyway," Shaun assured, rubbing his feet, "you'd think that having hooves would make trekking easier, but nooooo..."

"We could always get you horseshoes," Liz suggested with a devilish grin.

"Uh... How about 'no?'"

"Come on, getting metal nailed to your feet shouldn't hurt _too_ much..."

"Okay, I'm _leaving_ now..." Shaun announced, making his way for the door, "If anyone sees Liz with a hammer, two horseshoes, and a bunch of nails, let me know so I can head for the hills."

With Shaun gone, Liz got up and followed him out.

"I'm gonna go see if Cream is alright," Liz explained as she left, "I'm not sure if there's anything I can do to help, but I might as well try."

Now it was just me and Nate. Our leader slowly got up to his feet, making sure his fractured leg didn't get too much pressure on it, and also walked to the exit.

"Alright, Matt, just rest up for now," Nate advised, "oh, and next time you try to do a spin-dash, do it in an open area."

We shared a laugh before he left the room. Now, I was all by myself, lying in bed, with nothing to do. However, as I lay there, I realized that all that talking had somehow been taxing on me, and I soon drifted back off into sleep.

* * *

_"Hey, Matt?" my sister asked, poking my arm with one of her short little claws, "What are you gonna do once you leave the village?"_

_I turned to look at her from my seated position on a rock, swiping her prodding finger away with my paw._

_"I told you already, sis, I'm gonna move to Station Square!" I explained, "I'm tired of living out in the sticks, the city is where all the action's at!"_

_I took a deep breath and looked around at my village; my home. It was more like a small town, actually, with twenty or so houses as well as a windmill. We were currently situated near the base of the windmill, which in turn was on a hill overlooking the entire village. From here, you could see for miles: rolling hills, wooded regions, even a vast ocean to the west, all under a deep blue sky turning red with the sunset and only a few clouds that just added to the beauty. It was gorgeous, alright, but I wanted more. I wanted adventure._

_"So... What's all this action you keep talking about?" Ashley inquired, "I've never been to a city before."_

_I sighed as I thought about it. I hadn't been to Station Square myself, either. None of us had. It wasn't like we were one of those weird tribes that shunned modern civilization (that was more the echidnas' style), but most of us simply enjoyed the simple life. Not me, though. I knew there was more out there, but since no one had the guts to explore, I had no idea what._

_One day, some sleazy businessman named Wes Weasly blew into town, trying to sell something or another to us. The elders, apparently knowing he was bad news (the fact that the 'demonstrations' of his products always turned sour was probably a good tip-off), promptly kicked him out, but not before telling us about his beloved hometown, Station Square. While most just ignored him, I listened with great intent. After hearing all the stories, I knew that was where I wanted to be._

_"Well..." I began, "The city is a massive place with lots of buildings and people."_

_"Bigger than our village?"_

_"Oh yeah! The city has these buildings called 'apartments' that could probably house everyone here with room to spare! And there are hundreds of those in the city!"_

_"Wow... What else is there?"_

_"Oh, there's lots... Restaurants, parks, movie theaters, casinos... And it's all connected by railroad systems that go from being under the ground to being suspended on overhead tracks! You know, hence the name 'Station Square'."_

_"Sounds cool."_

_"Yeah, it is! And tomorrow, I'm packin' my bags and goin' there or bust!"_

_There was a long silence as I simply laid back and watched the sun set over the western sea. It would be the last time I'd see that; I was going to leave the very next day._

_As I turned back to Ashley, I noticed she had a somewhat concerned look on her face, much different than the awestruck wonderment she had a few moments before. She was fidgeting a little, playing with one of the two pigtails her head-fur was tied up in._

_"Okay, sis, something's bugging you," I stated flatly, "what's up?"_

_"Well..." she began, "I just hope the city isn't so amazing that you forget about us..."_

_"Hey, don't worry about it! I'll come back and see all of you sometime!"_

_"Promise?"_

_"Promise!" I assured her, patting her on the head, "Come on, let's get back to the house. I've got a big day tomorrow and I need my rest."_

_I got up, hoisted Ashley up onto my shoulders and carried her back to the house. She had been a light little pup, but the doctor assured us that young female wolves were always that lightweight. Regardless, we arrived at the house just as the stars were coming out. Before going in, I took one last look at the night sky, knowing that, tomorrow, my life would change forever..._

My eyes suddenly shot open. Okay, what the _heck_ was that!? Sure, I was having nightmares about getting roboticized, which, although downright terrifying, at least made a lick of _sense_ considering our situation, but this? I don't even _know_ where this came from.

I tried to sit up before remembering that any type of below-the-neck movement would've resulted in pain, so I instead simply turned my head to look out the window. It was nighttime, if the lack of sunlight was any indication. Added to the fact that I couldn't hear anyone, I came to the conclusion that it must've been pretty late (or early, depending on how you look at it).

Rather than try to wake anyone up, I simply stared straight up at the ceiling and tried to contemplate what on earth just went through my head. From what I could recall, I was dreaming about the day before I left my village to go to Station Square. Of course, there was a few things wrong with that: A. I never lived in a village; I live... lived in a suburb. B. I still haven't gone to Station Square. C. My sister is NOT a freakin' wolf! I'm the only one with the wacko furry thing going on here! Ultimate conclusion: That dream must have been the result of slamming my head against that dirt wall.

But that dream seemed so... _real_. Like it was some sort of flashback of my past... Oh, knock it off! There's no way that could've been a 'flashback' of my 'past' cuz it _never happened_!

Unless... I felt myself shutter a little bit as I thought about it. What if... What if this dream was another thing that made its way subconsciously into my mind, like all the animal instincts I've been doing? All this time I was worried that I might lose my mind to my bestial side, but what if I was losing it to something... some_one _else? I mean, the concept of someone forgetting who they are is disturbingly commonplace (and not just in fanfics, either... _Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories_, anyone?) and it wouldn't be out of place here considering everything else that was happening. Granted, it seemed like I would at least still be Matt and even still have my family (albeit in wolf form), but even so, I would be a _different_ Matt... And, depending on how bad this got, I wouldn't even _know it_.

Or maybe I _did_ just smash my head too hard against that wall. I dunno.

At any rate, I needed to get back to sleep. There was no use worrying over some silly little dream, anyway. Lord knows I had some pretty wacky dreams when I was still human, and compared to dreaming that I was trapped in the _Super Mario Bros. _Minus World with _Resident Evil_'s chainsaw zombies (don't ask; it makes even _less_ sense when I try to explain it), this was pretty mild.

Still, as I closed my eyes again, I found myself doing the unthinkable: I was actually praying that I _would_ have the roboticizer nightmare again.

* * *

The next few days went by pretty uneventful. I didn't have any more pseudo-flashback dreams and thus never bothered to inform anyone about it (probably not the brightest move, but still...) and, after a day or two, I was able to sit up in bed without screaming in pain. Still, to play it safe, I didn't get out of bed, least my legs give way and I wind up writhing on the floor in agony. Outside the window, I could watch Cream play with all the other kids in our group. After a while, I quickly realized that Mike, our resident tiger cub, seemed to come to the conclusion that he was the leader of the kids and therefore decided all the games that they played. While this mostly consisted of things like tag or hide-and-seek, there was one particularly memorable moment when he, absolutely shocked to discover that Cream had never heard of, let alone seen, _Pirates of the Caribbean_ (gee, I wonder why? Could it be that she's from... I dunno... ANOTHER UNIVERSE!?), tried to reenact the movie for her.

"Okay... Cream, you get to be Elizabeth..." Mike began, "She's the leading lady who gets kidnapped by Barbossa and all that junk. I'll be Captain Jack Sparrow, the infamous pirate who..."

He quickly got cut off by one of the other kids tapping him on the shoulder. He whirled around to look at the kid, who happened to be a small bird.

"Huh? What is it, Andy?" he asked.

"I wanna be Jack Sparrow!" 'Andy' replied.

"You? You can't be Jack Sparrow! _I'm_ Jack! Why should you be him?"

"Because I'm an actual sparrow!"

Awkward silence.

"You know... Like the bird?" he continued, unfurling his feathers to prove it, "I'm a sparrow, so I should be Jack Sparrow, right?"

Upon hearing that comment, I couldn't keep it in. I began laughing loudly at Andy's simple, yet hard to argue, logic. Unfortunately, the window happened to be wide open, so Mike easily heard my laughter from where he was standing.

"Hey!" Mike shouted, pointing an accusing finger in my general direction, "What are _you_ laughing at?"

"Well, he's right, you know," I explained, "I mean, as far as animals are concerned, shouldn't Jack Sparrow _be_ a sparrow?"

"Yeah, but... Who am _I_ gonna be?"

"What about Will Turner?"

"EW!!! I don't wanna be him! He's gets all mushy-mushy with that chick!"

"Uh... I'm a rabbit..." Cream tried to correct, but failed miserably.

"No one said you had to kiss her..." I added, "Aren't you just trying to explain the story to Cream?"

"Well... Uh... I... Um... Oh, forget it!" Mike sighed, utterly defeated, "Let's just play something else... So, Cream, have you ever seen _Star Wars_?..."

And with that, the kids all walked off. Sadly, they hardly played near my window after that. I guess Mike was afraid I'd side against him in a debate again or something.

Outside entertainment aside, not much else happened while I continued to recover. Cream's mom would come in with meals for me (I'm not quite sure how she was able to feed ten extra mouths, but I wasn't about to question her kindness) and otherwise make sure I was comfortable. Shaun came in my room a lot, usually carrying a huge butt-load of books that Vanilla apparently owned. Being the nerd that he was (I don't care what Nate says; he's still a geek), he spent a lot his free time reading all these things so he could 'better understand what life on Mobius was like.' Personally, I'd just play the games or read the comics or whatever, but Shaun was much too geeky for that. He wanted to know _everything_.

"Hey, check this out!" Shaun called to me one time as he was looking over something that vaguely resembled a biology textbook (and grinning like a stupid idiot the entire time), "Look what it says here: 'There is a certain hierarchy when it comes to animal life on Mobius. Even animals within the same basic species appear to be divided into two separate categories: one that has a higher sense of self-awareness and one that simply acts upon primal instincts. While scientists are unable to explain it, theologians attribute this to being that the first group has a conscious or a soul while the second group does not.'"

"Translation?..." I inquired. I found that I had to request that a lot whenever Shaun opened his mouth.

"They've got both anthros and normal animals here. For instance, you know how I'm an anthro deer? They've _also_ got deer like we have on earth. Same would go for other animals as well."

"Ah..." I responded in recognition, "So, um, I guess that means that it's possible for me to eat meat without feeling like I'm devouring someone's grandma, then?"

"I think so."

Well, that was a relief. I had noticed that I had been having a rather ravenous meat craving for a while (or maybe I was just getting sick of eating all those berries in the forest), but I kept it in since telling furries that you're a carnivore didn't seem like a good way to win friends and influence people. However, if there are cows, pigs, chickens, and fish that don't, you know, _talk_, then I guess us meat-eaters don't have to feel like insane cannibals when we eat.

Still, it's gotta be pretty awkward for a talking cow if there's a hamburger sitting right in front of them.

"So, how many of those books have you read?" I asked, abruptly changing the subject.

"None of them completely," he replied, "but I scanned through this biology book, a geography book, and a history book. If you need any information about this Mobius, you can count on me!"

Oh joy, our resident nerd just got even nerdier. After a moment, Shaun got up and made his way to the door. However, before he left he turned back to me.

"Uh, by the way... Liz hasn't shown any more interest in that horseshoe thing, right?"

"Not that I know of," I answered, "Why?"

"Well… I'm still kinda scared of her. I think she wants to do that as revenge for the whole hot spring incident."

"Trust me, I'm pretty sure beating you into a pulp was how she paid you back for that one."

"I certainly hope so…"

With that, Shaun left. To be completely honest, I wasn't entirely certain if Liz was serious about that whole horseshoe thing or not, but I wasn't about to tell him that. Despite my constant teasing, I actually respected Shaun. After all, he was the one with all the survival knowledge. If it weren't for him, we'd still be stuck in that forest. And now he's gone and actually _researched_ the world we're in now. Would anyone else do that? Nate, maybe, but certainly not Liz or any of the kids. And how do we thank him? We dunk him underwater. Or punch his lights out. Or threaten to nail horseshoes to his feet.

As I thought this over, I told myself that someday, I'd have to let Shaun know how much I appreciated the poor guy.

'Cuz God knows no one else would.


	8. Chapter 8

"Are you sure you want do go? It's awfully dangerous out there, especially with Sonic gone."

"Don't worry, Mom! It will be just like when I helped Ms. Blaze find those Sol Emeralds."

I still couldn't believe it. It had been a week or so since we first crashed at Cream's place. In that time, I managed to fully recover from my head-on collision with a wall and was now standing outside with Nate, Shaun, Liz and the rest of the kids, ready to head out and continue our journey. However, Cream apparently didn't want to say good-bye to us yet. Instead, she actually wanted to come along with us!

Mike, of course, initially objected, but Liz responded by taking him into another room and 'persuading' him to agree. I'm not quite sure what she did, but he came out looking so pale you could see it under all his fur and deciding that it was okay to bring Cream along after all.

I'm not so sure if Liz would make a good parent.

"Um... Correct me if I'm wrong..." Shaun whispered to me while Cream was saying her last good-byes to her mother, "But didn't Cream get _kidnapped_ when she went with Blaze?"

"Yeah..." I agreed, "But I have a feeling we'll need someone who knows what Mobius is like from experience, not just from reading books."

Shaun seemed to be a little offended by this remark and walked off grumbling. Oh well, he'll get over it. He always does.

"Do be careful," Vanilla said as she gave Cream one last hug.

"Don't worry! We'll be back soon!" Cream replied as she walked over to where we were standing, "I promise!"

"Chao! Chao!" Cheese agreed. In case it wasn't obvious, he was coming along for the ride, too. After all, those two are virtually inseparable... 'Cept in _Sonic and the Secret Rings_, for some reason, but we'll ignore that, okay?

"Well, we better get going, then," Nate began, "we've still got a long road ahead of us."

And with that, our group set out, now twelve strong with the addition of Cream and Cheese. As Cream's house faded into the distance, I looked back one last time to see Vanilla still standing there, watching us until we completely disappeared.

I wonder why Vanilla is so calm with Cream always heading out on these adventures? I mean, if I had a six-year-old, I sure as heck wouldn't let her ride on hoverboards moving at breakneck speeds or let her go fight an evil mad scientist, even if she _did_ have a hedgehog with a hammer and a morbidly obese cat to help her out.

Maybe it was because she had trust in Cream. She had trust that her daughter would know how to take care of herself, even though she was only in first grade. Or maybe... She had trust in _us_; that we would make sure nothing bad happened to her only child.

Now, it was up to us to make sure that trust was well-founded.

* * *

"Man... I'm tired of walking! It's boring and my feet hurt!" 

Oh great. Mike was whining. Again. Does that kid ever shut up?

"Mike, I already told you," Nate repeated, "It will be sunset in another hour or so. We'll stop for the night then."

"But I don't wanna stop in an _hour_! I wanna stop NOW!"

In case it wasn't obvious, Mike had a hard time taking 'no' for an answer. To be fair, though, we _had_ been walking for a good portion of the day and we were all pretty tired, but the rest of us refrained from complaining about it. There was some debate as to why we didn't just run like we did when we first left the woods, but between my spin-dash incident and Nate's leg (which he _claimed_ had recovered mostly, but he still seemed awfully reliant on his staff for support), we wanted to still keep it slow for a few days to make sure nothing horrendous happened and one of us would have to be dragged back to Cream's house.

Regardless, we all chose to ignore Mike for now. After all, it was only one more hour, and then we'd stop for the night. What could possibly happen in one hour?

_KABOOM!!!_

In an instant, I found myself lying on the ground, getting a huge mouthful of dirt. By the time I got back on my feet, another explosion rang out and leveled me again, this time on my back. As I slowly sat up, I looked around to see what the heck was going on. Everyone else was also lying on the ground in various positions, some also trying to get back on their feet while others were too hurt (or scared) to move. I also spotted a small crater a short distance ahead of us. What the heck? What _was_ that!?

My question was answered as I spotted a small, round object suddenly fly through all the remaining clouds of smoke and dust and land on the ground even closer to us. Immediately, it exploded, throwing all of us further backwards. Someone was throwing bombs at us!

Now, I wasn't exactly pining to get blown up again, and neither was Nate or Shaun, apparently. All three of us quickly rose to our feet after the third explosion and rushed forward, trying to find the source of all this. I wasn't exactly thinking about it at the time, but when I look back on it, I find it odd that Shaun was so quick to get up and run towards the origin of the bomb-lobbing. Wasn't this the guy who pretended to be unconscious to get out of fighting a robot?

Anyway, we eventually fought our way through all the dense air pollution that was quickly coming out of this and promptly stopped dead in our tracks. Before us was a giant vehicle that almost looked like a tank, but it was flying (hovering?) a few feet off the ground. When it spotted us standing ever-so-defiantly in its path, the hatch on the top opened up and two figures poked their heads out.

When we saw them, I'm pretty sure we all did a double-take. Even Shaun was rendered speechless for once.

The first figure looked a lot like me... species-wise, at any rate. He was a rather lanky-looking wolf that more resembled a coyote, but his grey fur made him appear more like my lupine-self than I really found comfortable. He was also wearing some fancy-shmacy armor complete with a swishy cape. His partner, on the other hand, looked like Crash Bandicoot on steroids. He had a hulking orange body with rippling muscles and wore nothing but a pair of ripped, green pants and gloves. However, considering the Sonic universe's tendency to not stray too far from the stereotypes, it was safe to say that the dumb look on his face was most likely genuine. Can't have a sleazy villain without a strong-but-stupid sidekick, can we? At any rate, I _knew_ I recognized these creeps from somewhere, but I just couldn't quite remember where...

"What!?" I shouted, "It's you two!... Um... Uh... What's-his-face and the... Other guy?"

I glanced at Nate for a little help, but he just shrugged. Even he couldn't remember these guys.

"Are we really that unpopular?" the giant orange one asked with the typical 'dumb guy' voice.

"No, you overgrown mutt..." his partner replied disdainfully, "They don't know us because we've never threatened their lives before!"

"Hey, wait a second!" Shaun suddenly interrupted, "I remember you guys! You're Sleet and Dingo!"

Of course! _That's_ where I've seen 'em before! Sleet and Dingo: the two bounty hunters who picked on Sonic and his siblings in _Sonic Underground_! But what on earth (screw technicalities, I'm just saying 'earth' from now on) were they doing here?

"Yay! We're not unpopular!" Dingo cheered.

Sleet simply let out a disgusted groan.

"What? We're not even worthy of Scratch and Grounder?" Nate asked mockingly, "Okay, so why are you trying to blow us up, exactly? Target practice?"

"Simple, my furry ferret friend," Sleet replied, "Dr. Robotnik placed a bounty on all your heads and specifically sent us out to capture you, preferably alive."

"I guess the good Doctor must've gotten desperate!" came a very feminine voice

We all whirled around to see Liz standing right behind us, joining in the little insult-hurling contest we were having.

"Sorry I took a minute to get here," she explained, "unlike the rest of you guys, I made sure the rest of the kids were _alright_ and hiding somewhere _safe_ before rushing in to bash some heads."

On second thought, maybe I should take back that comment about Liz being a bad parent. She has her priorities in order (something the rest of us _don't_, apparently), she just is a little more... aggressive... when it comes to tackling problems than most.

Oh, and she beats up people who make her mad. That would be interesting if her kid ever had a bullying problem.

"So, at any rate... Why are we on Robotnik's 'Most Wanted' list, anyway?" Liz addressed to the two idiots in the hover-tank, "We haven't even _met_ the guy! Is he just trying to be a jerk or what, 'cuz he's doing a pretty good job at it!"

Sleet let out a sinister little chuckle.

"Well, it's quite simple, really. Robotnik's actually _concerned_ about your little friends he's already captured. He doesn't want them to feel all alone in their... ahem... new state, so he wants you to join them! Isn't that so considerate of him?"

"'New state'?" Dingo repeated with confusion, "Don't you just mean roboti---Mmph!"

"Quiet you flea-ridden lunkhead!" Sleet hissed, shoving his paw over Dingo's mouth, "You'll ruin the surprise!"

However, for us, it was too late. We knew _exactly_ what he was talking about. Our friends, the ones taken way in the fire... They were roboticized. They were lost.

The realization overcame us like a tidal wave. At first, we all looked at each other with the blankest expressions I've ever seen. Soon, though, we all changed from quiet comprehension to bitter rage.

"He... Did... WHAT!?" Liz screamed. Even though she was the one who suggested the idea that our friends were now robots in the first place, she was still as enraged as we were to discover that she was actually _right_.

"Oh, please, don't tell me you were hoping for something different," Sleet sighed, almost uninterested in our pain, "you tick the Doctor off, you get roboticized, it's as simple as... YEOW!!!"

The sinister wolf suddenly reeled back, clutching his left arm. Upon closer inspection, I noticed that Liz's throwing dagger was sticking out of it! I quickly turned to my partner, who was grinning almost as devilishly as Sleet was moments before.

"That's what I think of your Dr. Robotnik!" she spat, "Why don't you relay the message to him for me!?"

After a few moments more of wincing in pain, Sleet pulled out the dagger and tossed to the ground, still holding onto his arm to keep the blood loss to a minimum.

"Ugh! You stupid little girl!" he growled, "I hope when the Doctor roboticizes you, you'll be crying and begging for him to just kill you instead, like your little friends did!"

That did it.

Liz, now weaponless, ran ahead to retrieve her dagger lying a short distance away. Nate quickly decided to stop leaning on his pole like a walking stick and began twirling it around in a manner rivaling what I've seen in most kung-fu movies. Even Shaun, who had no fighting ability to speak of (as far as I knew, anyway), brought up his fists and glared so menacingly at the dubious duo, I could've sworn I saw literal fire in his eyes.

Me? I felt it rising in me again... That same primal rage that overtook me during the fire. This time, though, I knew it was coming and, in my anger, gladly embraced it. I fell to the ground on all fours, howled, and lunged forward.

Sleet and Dingo realized that staying vulnerable out in the open was really stupid, so they quickly climbed back into the hover-tank and pulled the hatch down. Cowards. That wouldn't stop me. I watched, my vision already reddened with rage, as I leaped from the ground, kicked off the barrel of the cannon on the tank, and leaped up onto the roof, where those two jerks were a few moments ago. Finding the hatch leading inside, I began pulling on it, only to find that it was locked.

Yeah, like that would stop me. _Nothing_ could stop me.

I simply pulled my fist back and began pounding the metal exterior over and over again. Surprising even my enraged self, my punches were actually doing damage, leaving huge dents every time I hit the tank. Meanwhile, Sleet and Dingo were firing bombs every which way, hoping to take _some_one out with them. However, even if they got within range of hitting anything, Nate would rush in and bat the bomb away with his pole, making it explode harmlessly far away from either the kids or the four of us. Shaun and Liz, on the other hand, were too busy watching _me_ to do anything else. They simply stared at me as I continued hammering away at the vehicle.

I was reaching my breaking point again. I could feel it. Both my fists began pounding the metal faster trying to break in and reach those two... _victims_. _My_ victims. I could sense it: they where huddled in there, trembling every time fist met the hull. They _feared_ me now, and that fed my rage even more. Suddenly, my vision went stark red, just as it did right before I destroyed Eggrobo. Now, with no sight to see, I could only hear the metal being smashed over and over and over... Until there was a deafening 'crack!' like that of a lightning bolt. I knew what this meant: I broke through. My adversaries had no where to hide now.

With another ear-splitting roar, I dove in. Where can you go now, you _fools_? You can't escape me now; you can't beg for mercy. Mercy requires being humane. I _had_ no humanity. _I_ was pure beast.

However, before I heard my attack, before I heard Sleet and Dingo scream either in fear or in pain, everything went completely black and still, just like it did before.

Once again, I found myself in euphoric rest.

* * *

I suspected that I would wake up with another throbbing migraine, but that didn't help alleviate the pain any when I slowly came back to reality feeling like my head was going to implode. Furthermore, the nausea was even worse this time: I felt like I was gonna throw up every last meal that Vanilla had fed me, along with my stomach and most of my small intestine. 

The first thing I laid my eyes on, rather than the blurry sky I had seen when I came to after my first primal attack, was two huge eyes that I could practically see my reflection in. Gee, I wonder who those could belong to?

"Okay... Cream..." I moaned almost incoherently, "There's a little thing called personal space... And you're violating it..."

"Oh! Sorry, Mr. Mathew!" Cream apologized as she scrambled away to give me some breathing space.

With Cream out of the way, I slowly began to sit up and look around. Unlike last time, it didn't seem like we moved very far from the fight zone. In fact, I could easily see the downed hover-tank a short distance away, with some of the kids playing in or around it. Sitting right next to me, holding out a canteen for me just like the last time, was Nate.

"Hey, Nate..." I mumbled, reaching out and taking the canteen he was offering, "I did that psycho thing again, didn't I?"

"Did you ever!" Nate replied, his voice full of shock, "How the heck did you manage to do that!? You pounded right through reinforced metal!"

I took a moment to look down at my hands (oddly, I wasn't wearing my gloves; someone must've taken them off). Incredibly, they looked almost completely normal. No bleeding. No bruising. They only felt sore and looked a little swollen. Otherwise, there was no indication that I had previously used them to hit _anything_, let alone a tank's armor.

"I dunno..." I answered, "I understand that whole primal thing making me behave more like a wolf, but _this_?"

I slowly rose to my feet. I was still sore and woozy as all get out, but I figured maybe I could walk it off this time. The last thing I wanted after being bed-ridden for a week was to be stuck lying down again.

"So, I take it the tank's down for the count?"

"Uh, huh," Nate assured, "the kids are trying to get it to start driving around again, but I don't think it's going anywhere."

"And what about Sleet and Dingo?"

"Um..." Nate trailed off, "I think it's best if you saw it for yourself..."

Nate led me a little ways away until we came upon the dubious duo tied to a tree. Meanwhile, Liz was standing over the two, interrogating them.

"So let me get this straight..." Liz began, clearly annoyed, "You two idiots have no idea why Dr. Robotnik would want us?"

"Nope," Dingo replied, shaking his head, "What Doc says, we do."

"Yeah," Sleet agreed, "_I'm_ not gonna question him. I'd prefer to keep my flesh and fur, thanks."

As we got closer, I began to notice how horribly beaten up the two mercenaries were. The wound left by Liz's dagger in Sleet's arm was mild compared to the other gashes that carved up both his upper appendages. His body armor was smashed in and his cape was ripped to shreds. He kept his one eye shut the entire time and one of his ears looked like it was completely lobbed off. Dingo, on the other hand, looked as though someone had thrown him in a meat grinder. His entire body was covered in scars (although, to be fair considering his line of work, I doubt all of them had just been made) and his face seemed to be perpetually contorted in pain.

As I looked at those two, I started to feel sick to my stomach. Sure, I was already suffering a hangover-like nausea, but this was different. Did I... Did I really _do_ all this to them?

The second the duo saw me, they completely freaked out. Sleet, who, from the very few episodes of _Sonic Underground_ I saw, I presumed to always be cool under any sort of pressure, was practically cowering in fear as I approached. Dingo actually started _crying _when he noticed my presence.

"Please..." the giant, orange... um... dingo (really creative naming there, guys) pleaded, "... Not him... Get him away!"

"Honest! We're telling the truth!" Sleet whimpered, "We don't know what Robotnik wanted with you guys! You don't need to send someone in to torture us! Especially not him!"

Upon hearing this, I slowly started to back away. These guys... These big-time villains... Were _afraid_ of me. What did I _do_ to them?

I looked down at my own body again and noticed, for the first time, all the blood that was clotted in my fur. It... It wasn't _my_ blood... It was _theirs_. I licked my teeth and immediately recognized the unmistakably metallic taste of blood. I didn't just punch these guys out or anything... I _mauled_ them.

"Well, I think they're telling the truth," Liz commented, oblivious to my unnerving revelation, "so what now? Hold them hostage in exchange for the kids back?"

"Nah, that won't work," Nate retorted, "Robotnik won't care that we have two guys who work for him. As far as he's concerned, he can just get two more. What do you say, Matt?"

I quickly snapped out of my stupor when I heard Nate mention my name.

"Erm... What?"

"What do you say, Matt? What should we do with these guys, since I doubt Robotnik will feel threatened by a hostage situation?"

My eyes quickly darted to our two prisoners. They were looking at me with more fear in their eyes than I could've possibly imagined was possible for a single person. Oh gosh... They think I'm going to _kill_ them.

"... Just... Just let 'em go," I murmured.

"What!?" Liz shouted, thinking she didn't hear me right.

"Just let 'em go," I repeated, "if we did anything to them, how would that make us better than Robotnik?"

Nate and Liz looked at each other and, unable to find a counter for my argument, cut the ropes holding Sleet and Dingo together.

"You've got two seconds to get out of here," Liz hissed, "or I'll aim my dagger _lower_ next time."

It only took the two bounty hunters one second to completely vanish from view.

Once the duo was gone, I slowly walked over to a fallen log, sat down, and began to cry silently. What did I _do_? I tried to remember, but I couldn't. It was all a blank as soon as I got into the tank itself. The way they looked, it was like I had inflicted every possible wound on them without actually _killing_ them. Before, when I had gone berserk in the fire, I was attacking and destroying robots, but now, I had attacked two _people_. Even worse, at the time, I had _enjoyed_ it. Their fear, their screams... It was pushing me on. I had no morals, no values to speak of, just a thirst for destruction, and I didn't stop until I had my fill. Now... Looking at my victims after the attack... They were _terrified_. They saw me not as a person or even a wolf, but a Hellhound. Every ounce of conscious in my body was crying out, but I could offer no solace; I _had_ no conscious when I did it. My morals, my ethics... All vanished when I gave in to the primal rage.

"Matt? Are you all right?"

I turned and saw Liz sitting on the log next to me, handing me my gloves. Before, I always saw her with a playful, but devilish air about her, but now, compared to _me_, she almost seemed angelic in innocence.

"Sorry I took your gloves," she apologized as I retrieved them emotionlessly, "I just figured I'd get all the blood out of them before it stained."

I cringed as she mentioned this. It was almost as if she was _bragging_ about my homicidal tendencies.

"Liz..." I begged, "What did I _do_ to Sleet and Dingo? When they saw me, it was like they were seeing Death himself!"

"Well, I can't blame 'em!" Liz replied, "I mean, we couldn't see what you were doing to them in that tank, but _man_... There was blood splatter shooting out of the hatch and everything! And then... Oh, this was priceless... You dragged their unconscious bodies out by your _fangs_! And... And..."

She trailed off when she noticed that I was looking even more desperate now than before.

"Uh... You don't remember any of it, do you?"

Gee, you think? Do you think I would ever consciously cause projectile blood splatter or clamp my jaws on someone and drag them around? What do I look like, a sadist?

Then again, that's what Sleet and Dingo saw when they looked at me.

"Liz..." I began, slowly putting my newly cleaned gloves on, "Their blood is on my hands. I didn't just stop them from hurting us; I went for the overkill. I was finding _pleasure_ in their _pain_... And I don't even remember it."

I let out a nervous chuckle.

"Liz... I'm a monster."

I felt too ashamed to even look at her anymore. She simply sat there, trying to find words to comfort me, but failing miserably. Instead, she tried to put her arm around my shoulders, but I stopped her.

"Please... Just leave me be."

After a moment's hesitation, she complied.

Now, I was all alone again; sitting there, contemplating what I had done. So many times, I had laughed whenever I read another stupid Mary Sue having a 'powerful ability that hurts both her enemies and her friends and she must learn to control it for everyone's sake bla bla bla...' but now I found nothing funny about it. Sure, it's pathetic when you read about another stupid fancharacter suddenly releasing a giant energy blast when she's upset that obliterates an entire army of robots but also kills her closest friend, but when you realize the destruction that you cause with your own hands, it's not a matter of how 'cliché' or 'overused' it is anymore. I nearly _killed_ two people and I _enjoyed_ it, and I knew that it could only get worse. Next time, there might be a fatality. Maybe it will be someone innocent, rather than some robot or huge tank, who's unfortunate enough to get in my way. It might even be Nate, Liz, Shaun, or one of the kids. Sure, it wouldn't _technically_ be my fault since I didn't have any control over myself at the time, but does guilt ever truly work that way? There would still be a dead man, and their blood would be on _my_ hands.

Before, we had all discovered that bumming around in the Sonic universe isn't all it's cracked up to be. Now, I learned that even what I thought was the most ridiculous of overused plot devices takes on a whole new meaning when it happens to you personally, no matter how cliché it is.

Something I once mocked was now mocking me.

* * *

The next day went by uneventful. I walked the entire time in complete silence, not wanting to talk to anyone. Whenever someone brought up how 'cool' I was fighting that tank, Liz was kind enough to shoot them a glare that would quickly shut them up. When she wasn't doing that, though, she was usually talking with Cream. Actually, she had been hanging around with the rabbit almost ever since we left her house. Furthermore, whenever she was with Cream, she seemed... different. She didn't seem to be all, "I'm fine, but don't tick me off or you'll regret it" like she was with us. With Cream, she seemed genuinely happy, not just trying to keep an upbeat attitude while putting up with the rest of us. 

Anyway, this continued until nightfall, where Shaun managed to scrounge up enough timber to build a meager campfire. While all the other kids were busy playing hide-and-seek in the dark, me, Nate, and Shaun sat by the fire, keeping warm.

"Um..." Nate began, unsure of how to say it, "Are you okay, Matt? You've been awfully quiet the whole day."

"Yeah..." I grunted. I _so_ didn't want to talk about it.

"So..." Shaun replied, "Want to talk about it?"

Screw you, Shaun.

"No..." I mumbled.

"... It's about your little primal thing, isn't it?"

ARGH!!! Why can't they just leave me alone!?

"Look, guys, I don't want to talk about it, okay!?" I demanded, "I just... I'm just afraid that this little 'gift' of mine is more of a curse."

"Because you think you're gonna go too far?" Nate asked.

Oh, heck with it, they weren't gonna bug off anytime soon. Might as well tell them.

"Yeah..." I replied, "I mean, it was fine against the robots because they weren't even _alive_, but I nearly killed two guys there! What's stopping me from going all the way next time?"

"Self-control?" Shaun suggested.

"That won't work... I'm not _in_ control of myself when I do that. I'm... I'm a wild animal."

"Well..." Nate answered, "I don't really know what to say, mate. Just try keeping it in _before_ it takes you over in the first place, I guess."

Yeah, like that would work. Next time I'm filled with blinding rage, I'll just keep it in! Brilliant!

At any rate, I quickly noticed this conversation was covering the same ground I already went over before in my head, so I tried to change the subject. Looking across the campfire's rising flames, I could see Liz sitting on the ground with Cream beside her. The little rabbit was now using the lizard's lap as a pillow, sleeping peacefully with her beloved pet Cheese nestled in her arms. Looking back at Liz, I noticed that she too seemed to be dozing off.

"Is it just me," I began, "or does Liz like to hang out with Cream a lot?"

"Hey, I can understand that," Nate retorted, "I mean, she's been with no one but other guys for nearly a month now. Now, she finally has someone she can relate to."

As I looked at the two girls again, I realized that Nate was right. She couldn't talk to Shaun about feminine hygiene (last time they tried that resulted in Shaun getting his face beaten in). She couldn't gossip about cute boys to Nate, and she sure as heck wasn't gonna tell _me_ anything about her personal life. Those were things that girls only talk to other girls about. Maybe the reason she had been acting so... tomboyish to us, what with all the attitude and head-beating, wasn't because that was just how she was, but because she never had anyone to vent to about her feminine side. With Cream, she had someone she could talk about such things with. She could be herself without some idiot punk (Mike, I'm sure) calling her a sissy. Cream didn't need her to be 'one of the guys' and I think she liked finally having someone like that. Of course, she still had her spunk, it wouldn't be our Liz without it, but now she seemed... gentler, nicer, cuter.

Erm... Scratch that last one out. She's a _lizard_, for crying out loud. And I've got more important things to do than flirt, especially with someone I doubt I'll ever see again after all this.

Regardless, looking at the two of them sleep made me feel pretty tired as well. So, after saying good-night to the guys, I found a soft spot on the ground and went to sleep.

* * *

"Matt! Dude! Wake up! You gotta see this!" 

I was nudged awake by Shaun who, for whatever reason, was poking me in the side with his antlers.

"You know..." I mumbled groggily, "Most people just give sleeping people a shake to get 'em to wake up."

"Yeah, well, that's boring," Shaun explained, as if amusing himself was some sort of obvious priority in his life, "but enough about that, you gotta check this out! It's incredible!"

After getting the overly exuberant deer to leave me alone for more than two seconds, I got up and looked to see what this oh-so-exciting thing Shaun found was.

Sitting right next to the now burnt out campfire was a huge chest. In fact, the chest looked almost exactly like the one I found in my hut that had all my articles of clothing in it. It was already open, with all the little kids pulling what looked like small sacks out of it and waving them around in the air, cheering like maniacs. Naturally, I was a tad curious as to what the heck all of this was about, so I got up and walked over to the chest and checked it out myself.

Inside the chest were ten of the same sacks the kids were waving around. A quick count of the ones that they already took came out to four, so there were fourteen of these total, the same as the number of kids we originally had... Anyway, I grabbed one for myself and opened it up to see what they had that got the kids so excited. What I saw made my eyes nearly bulge out of their sockets.

Inside the purse was a huge collection of rings, exactly like the kind Sonic collects in his games. In fact, they weren't just gold rings; they were those platinum rings that were in _Sonic and the Secret Rings_ that were worth twenty normal rings each! They were actually a lot smaller than I imagined; instead of being about the size of Sonic's head or whatever miss-proportioned scale they were in the games, these were no bigger than an ordinary finger ring. Add that to the fact that the bag was huge, and there had to be well over a hundred rings in here! Do the math... Fourteen purses, each with one hundred plus rings worth twenty normal rings each... We had to have well over thirty-thousand rings total! If rings were the currency of Mobius, which I assumed, then we were stinkin' filthy rich!

"Nate!?" I shouted in pure excitement, just like the rest of the kids, "Is this for real!?"

"Yeah, I think so!" he replied, taking one pouch of rings and putting it in his satchel, "But who would leave all this out here for us?"

"Hey, guys!" Liz called out, holding up a sheet of paper, "I think I found something!"

We all walked over to her as she showed us the paper.

"I found this at the bottom of the chest. I think it's some sort of letter. Look what it says..."

_Use this money to buy whatever you need when you reach Station Square. Food, weapons, shelter... Whatever. Trust me, you'll need all the extra support you can get._

_The Authoress_

"'The Authoress'?" Nate repeated, "Who's that?"

"Beats me," Liz replied, "but I guess she's the one who left this for us!"

Shaun seemed to be pretty lost in thought, not that such a thing was uncommon for him, but that was a sure sign he believed something was up.

"Okay, Shaun, what are you thinking?" I asked, "You always get that look when you're about to say something you think is huge."

"Huh? Oh, right..." Shaun stumbled a bit before continuing (coming back to reality was always tough for him), "Guys, didn't you notice that the chest was the exact same type that we found in our huts when we first got here?"

"Yeah, so?" Nate countered.

"Well, think about it... The first chests, which happened to be in some random abandoned village with just enough huts for all of us no less, had clothing that fit us exactly. Now, the same type of chest has enough money to support a third-world nation so we can go blow it all when we reach wherever we're heading. Dude, guys... This Authoress chick... She's the one that's been pulling all the strings for us since the beginning!"

Silence.

"Shaun, did you accidentally hyperventilate on your vest in the middle of the night again?" Liz inquired.

"Guys... I'm serious!" he pleaded, "She's been helping us since the start! First with the village, then with the clothes, and now with the money!"

Well, I had to admit the kid had a point. Even I noticed that the chest looked suspiciously the same to the ones in the hut. Even so, could that possibly mean that all these big breaks we've been getting were courtesy of this Authoress person? Weird.

Oh well, I'm certainly not gonna look a gift horse in the mouth. If 'the Authoress' wants to help us out by giving us a butt-load of cash, she can go right ahead!

At any rate, remember how my belt had those little notches in it that looked like it was made to hold stuff? Well, I tied attaching my purse of rings to it and, sure enough, it fit perfectly. Now, my cash was hanging on my right hip, easily accessible whenever I needed it. How convenient!

"Well, now that all that's out of the way..." Nate began, "We better head out. That note said we'd need the money in Station Square, so we can't bee to far off, right?"

"Correct, Mr. Nathaniel!" Cream replied, pointing to the distance, "Station Square is just over that hill!"

"Chao! Chao!" Cheese agreed.

Of course, the prospect of being that close to civilization promptly rallied the troops together as they sprinted off, trying to reach the top of the hill first. When we got there, we simply stopped and stared in awe.

Below us, sparkling in the morning light reflecting off both skyscraper windows as well as a vast ocean to the west, was the sprawling metropolis of the Sonic universe: Station Square.


	9. Chapter 9

I'd be lying if I said that actually walking through Station Square wasn't a totally surreal experience. I mean, anyone who's played _Sonic Adventure_ has already explored the city (and, most likely, thrown themselves into the street and watched all the cars come to a screeching halt two feet away from their face… Although this trick never seemed to work on Radical Highway), but to actually _be_ in the metropolis was as weird as all get out.

The first thing we noticed when we first entered the city was a complete lack of something that had been in the game version: humans. For a while I had assumed that, like most modern interpretations of the Sonic universe, there were still people who coexisted with the anthropomorphic critters and we had just gotten the short end of the stick when we wound up here. However, looking around, there was not a single _homo sapiens_ (oh, I used a fancy word… Shaun would be jealous) to be seen. Instead, the streets were populated with a vast variety of walking, talking animals. From aardvarks to zebras, virtually every _other_ type of species was represented.

"Say, Nate…" I whispered to our ferret leader, "Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't Station Square always have humans in it?"

"That's what I thought, too," he replied, "but it looks like it isn't the case here. Whatever version of Mobius we're in, it must be one without humans."

"Yeah, but how does that explain Dr. Eggman? Besides the almighty plothole, I mean?"

"Well, technically, he might not be a 'human', per se…" Liz suggested, "He might be an Overlander."

"Over-what?" I sputtered.

"In the comics, Overlanders were what the Mobians called humans… Four fingered ones, anyway. Unfortunately, Robotnik's actions, among other things, such as the Great War between Mobians and Overlanders, caused the Mobians to generally hate Overlanders, forcing the humans to go into hiding to avoid racial attacks. Funny thing is, Station Square _was_ their hiding spot in that storyline; the Hidden City of the Ancients…"

We all stared blankly at our female colleague.

"What?"

"You lost me at 'In the comics'…" Shaun mumbled, "Man, and I thought _Sonic Underground _was confusing…"

Liz gave Shaun another one of her trademark glares. Apparently, she didn't like it when someone dissed her comics.

"Hey, Shaun, you read those textbooks…" I recalled, "Did any of them say anything about humans on Mobius?"

"Hmm…" the deer pondered, "Not really… All they said was that Robotnik simply showed up one day and began causing all kinds of havoc, so maybe he really _is_ one of a kind, in a species sense."

"Yeah, but…" I interjected, "… Oh, forget it. So Eggman's just _here_. Wonderful."

As we continued walking, I couldn't help thinking over the subject further. When you're coming up with a story for a game, you generally don't concern yourself with the details. After all, the story usually takes a backseat to the gameplay (unless it's an RPG, in which case you'll spend more time watching characters _talk_ rather than do anything... _Xenosaga_, anyone?). This tends to leave a lot of open ends for the fans to argue over. Did Sonic come from Earth or Mobius? Is Knuckles really the last of his race? Whatever happened to Tails' parents? Of course, we fanfic authors try to fill in these blanks to the best of our abilities, but no matter what we write, no matter how much sense it makes or how well-written it is, it can't be considered 'canon'. Regardless, it hardly deters from the franchise any; we play the games or watch the shows or read the comics for entertainment, not for a full-blown geological dissertation of Sonic's world.

However, this was different. This was no game or show or comic; this was _real_. You can't just ignore Eggman's human presence among an entire planet of furries here like you can in the games. Things don't just happen in real life out of convenience or simplicity; they need to be _explained_. After all, you can't have plotholes in reality... Can you?

"Hey, Matt, do you have any idea where we're going?"

I quickly snapped out of my ponderings when I realized that Liz was addressing me.

"Hmm? What?"

"You know where we should go?" Liz repeated, "I mean, we can't just wander aimlessly through the city here. We look like a bunch of tourists."

"And we're not?" I asked hypothetically, "Ask Nate, he's the leader."

We both turned to Nate, who was currently asking directions from a large bulldog running a small sidewalk concessions stand that was selling... What else? Chili dogs.

Either irony has no bounds or everyone on Mobius, not just Sonic, loves chili dogs. Considering everything else that's been going on, I'd choose the former.

"Yeah, go down a couple blocks and you'lls finds it," the bulldog replied in a thick, Brooklyn accent to whatever Nate was asking him, pointing his spatula in the direction he was indicating, "Though I should warn yous, it's pretty darn ritzy."

"Well, money isn't really an issue for us," Nate assured, "but thanks for the help! I appreciate it."

"No problems! Always glad to help a newbie!"

Walking away from the concession stand, Nate began to address us.

"Okay, guys, the man said that there's a hotel a short distance away that we could probably check into. What do you say we finally find someplace to sleep besides under the stars?"

* * *

When that bulldog said that the hotel was ritzy, he wasn't fooling around.

Upon entering through the revolving doors (and being extra careful to make sure my big, fluffy tail didn't decide to get stuck in it), my retinas were quickly bombarded with two major colors: Gold and red. While the carpets, curtains, and seat cushions were all a dark red color, just about everything else was gold, or some variant thereof. Gold walls, gold railings, gold door handles... I was under the general impression that the architect must've had a serious King Midas fetish. I probably should've walked into the restroom just to see if the freakin' urinal was gold, 'cuz nothing proclaims your aristocracy more than whizzing on a precious metal.

Anyway, as Nate, Shaun, Liz, and I walked under a massive chandelier that had to have been holding about ten gazillion candles in its countless arms and up to the reception desk, the kids began running around the massive lobby, jumping on the sofas, and shouting just to hear the echo reverberate throughout the room. Cream and Cheese tried to restore some semblance of order, along with a bunch of posh-looking butlers and bellhops, but they were all failing miserably. I began to get the sinking feeling that our stay here would _not_ be enjoyed by the hotel staff.

"Um... Hi..." Nate said to the receptionist, trying to ignore the chaos unfolding behind him, "... We'd like a few rooms, please."

The lady behind the counter, who looked like an elderly poodle, scrunched up her nose at us, as if we were somehow unworthy of making such a request. Can't blame her, though; _I'd_ be a little less than willing to offer a group some rooms after they trashed my lobby, too.

"You _do_ realize how much it will cost, right?" she asked, leaning over the counter to reduce the space between us and her you-got-to-be-kidding-me glare.

"No," Liz stated bluntly, cocking her head to one side, "why don't you inform us?"

"It will be a hundred rings a night..."

Well, that wasn't too bad.

"For _each_ of you. And fifty extra for the chao."

Scratch that.

I stood dumbfounded as I tried to figure out the cost. A hundred for each of us (and fifty for Cheese) would come to 1150 rings a night! Did they really expect us to pay that much!?

... Or maybe that was supposed to be the point.

"Don't the kids get some sort of discount?" Shaun pleaded, "And my dad's a AAA member, so that reduces the cost, right?"

"Kids cost _extra_," the lady emphasized, "they run around, make messes, and generally cause the kind of mayhem that those miscreants are doing right _now_, so the inflated price goes towards replacing whatever property they undoubtedly destroy. Also, I have no clue what on Mobius you're talking about in regards to your father, except that you are probably lying in a pitiful attempt to compensate for your obvious lack of funds..."

While the receptionist continued to rant and rave about how we were allegedly too broke to even consider staying here, Nate calmly reached into his satchel, pulled out his bag of rings, and threw it on the counter. A few of the rings fell out as a result of the impact and began to roll across the countertop, their platinum brilliance sharply contrasting all the gold in the surrounding area. The old poodle stared, mouth agape, at the huge collection of uber-expensive rings before her before quickly pulling her act together and addressing us again, _much_ more formally than before.

"Welcome to L'hôtel de L'or, Mr..."

"Williams," Nate answered.

"Mr. Williams. How many rooms will you be needing, exactly? Each room as two queen-sized beds, allowing up to four per room."

Nate looked back at the kids and then to us.

"So, how do you want to do this?" he asked, "One of us and three kids per room?"

"Uh... How 'bout per _two_ rooms?" Shaun suggested, "I don't exactly want to _share_ a bed with someone. That's just... creepy."

"Each pair of adjacent rooms is connected by a door," the lady added, apparently anticipating our next question.

"Great, we'll need eight rooms, then," Nate requested, "how soon will they be ready?"

"They're ready right now," she replied, handing us the keys from behind the desk, "please enjoy your stay."

* * *

Okay, so the foyer was insanely monochromatic save for the occasional red velvet and the employees apparently had mood swings depending on how much money you had, but I had to admit it, I was glad to finally have a room.

Sure, I technically had a place to crash back at Cream's house, but I hardly did much there besides recuperate from smashing my head against a wall and I felt guilty that I was practically leaching off of Vanilla's kindness the entire time. Besides, no one else had a room then: Nate informed me that everyone else 'camped out' during that time, making me feel even _more_ guilty.

This, though, was a different story. This wasn't a makeshift hospital room for me to recover in nor did I have to feel guilty about leaching off of someone here (and even if leaching _was_ involved, it's hard to feel guilty for a bunch of money-driven, bi-polar aristocrats). Instead, I had a room that I could kick back and relax in whenever I felt like it. For the first time since I got here, I finally had something that almost resembled a home.

Oh, and there was a hot shower. That was a plus, too.

I must have spent about an hour in there the first time I used it, practically turning the bathroom into a sauna with all the resulting steam. Sure, I did get a chance to wash myself off at that watering hole, but that was over a week ago (I didn't have the heart to ask Vanilla if I could use her shower after everything she did for me already), and I got plenty filthy since then, especially after that... shudder... fight with Sleet and Dingo. Maybe that's why that receptionist lady was scrunching up her nose at us... At any rate, it me took a while to get used to some of the idiosyncrasies of furry hygiene, such as trying to keep all the different soaps and shampoos straight since, apparently, fur requires a different conditioning than, say, feathers or scales (all of which there were bottles for in the shower), but I eventually figured it all out and when I finally stepped out of the shower, I felt completely rejuvenated.

I grabbed a towel off the rack and used it to wipe the condensation off of the mirror before I began drying myself off with it. However, as soon as I put the towel down, I made a rather unpleasant discovery: I now looked like a giant dust bunny. Seriously, my fur was sticking out in all directions, like I was standing on one of those electro-ball things they always have at science museums that makes your hair stand on end when you touch it. I made a mental note as I patted all my fur back down to use the hair dryer next time. I was wondering why the one hanging on the wall (aptly labeled a 'fur dryer') was quite a bit bigger than your average hair dryer, and now I knew why.

Once my appearance resembled a wolf again and not a giant, grey, furry Kirby, I took a good long look in the mirror. Except at the very beginning in that lake, I had never really gotten a very good look at myself, and it was still a little bit shocking, to say the least. This wolf... This animal staring back at me in the reflection... It _was_ me. And yet, at the same time, a part of me felt like this was completely normal, that the reflection in the mirror was how I _always_ looked. _That_, obviously, was a tad unsettling. Was it that animal instinct thing rising up in me again? That thing that made me a monster in battle and gave me dreams of past days I never really experienced? I quickly shook that thought out of my head; This was _not_ 'how I always looked'. I may be a wolf _now_, but I was _once_ a human and I'm not gonna stop until I am again.

I tried to focus on some other thoughts to take my mind of that unsettling subject. As I began thinking of other things to, well, think about, I found myself constantly blowing a strand of hair out of my eyes, only to have it fall back into my line of vision again. Annoyed, I looked back into the mirror and noticed, for the first time, how long my hair had grown. Although I was completely covered in fur, it seemed like most of it had stayed the same length throughout the entire journey thus far. The fur on my head, however, was a glaring exception. I recall it having started out rather short, only about an inch or two in length (I'm not exactly sure though, as the only time I got a good look at it was in that lake's reflection, and I was kinda busy noticing a lot of other things then besides my hair length). Now, however, it looked like an unkempt bowl cut. My bangs were all hanging in front of my eyes, constantly getting in the way of my vision, and the hair in the back was grown out to a tad below my chin. Oh great, now I had an _emo_ haircut.

Desperate to remedy the situation as quickly as possible, I swiped the twist-tie that was holding the fur dryer's cord together and used it to bunch all the hair together in a small ponytail. In the mirror, it looked a bit like how some men wore their hair back in the colonial days. I'm not sure how much of an improvement it was (although I guess I could try to pull the 'charming rogue' look, since the heroes in pirate movies tend to have their hair like this), but at least I didn't look like an Evanescence furry.

"Hey! Matt! How long ya gonna be in there!?" a voice came through the bathroom door, accompanied by loud knocking, "I have to pee like a racehorse!"

I let out a rather audible growl. Mike... I had to be stuck with him, didn't I? When being assigned kids that we'd be sharing the (two) rooms with, I managed to get stuck with the obnoxious little tiger brat, along with Andy the Sparrow and George the Guinea Pig.

... Oh gosh, did I actually refer to them in a '(name) the (species)' format?

"Actually, I'm not sure you should be using that analogy..." came another quiet voice that I recognized as Andy's, "Wouldn't that be considered kind of racist or something here?"

"Hey, who asked you? I can say whatever I want!"

I was tempted to let the conversation continue, but I figured that it probably wouldn't end well, so I opened the door and left the bathroom, letting Mike frantically rush in and slam the door behind him.

"Say, Mike..." I shouted through the door, "Can't you just use the bathroom in the other room?"

"I would, but that idiot George stuffed his face at the buffet downstairs and now he's busy revisiting all of it!" Mike retorted, this time from the other side of the door, "That kid is such a _pig_!"

I couldn't help but chuckle a little bit. At least I wasn't the only one who was taking on the occasional trait from the animal I was turned into.

"So, Andy..." I began, trying to make small talk with the little bird, "How do you like the hotel?"

"Oh, it's really cool!" he replied, "Although the pool's kinda lame. Have you seen it?"

"Erm... No," I answered. I had spent the entire time thus far just basking in that shower, and I certainly had no intention to swim now. Chlorine always did crazy stuff to my hair as a human; I shuddered to think what it would do to my fur.

"It's just a plain ol' square! What's up with that?"

"Well, rich people seem to like rectangular pools," I explained, "they generally use them to swim laps and stuff, not to splash around in."

"Wow, rich people are boring."

Ah, the innocence of childhood: Being able to say what everyone else is thinking and get away with it. Unless your name is 'Mike' that is. Then, you generally just tick people off with your comments.

Speaking of Mike, the little punk just then came out of the bathroom threw himself on one of the beds, and turned on the TV.

"I wonder if this place gets any good shows..." the cub grumbled, aimlessly channel surfing, "Hmm? What's this?"

He stopped on a channel that was currently showing two foxes staring at each other very passionately, the vixen wearing nothing but a pair of thong-panties and a bra. As the male fox began reaching back to undo the bra, a voiceover began to play.

"Unleash your animal instincts _now_, here on PlayYi---"

I immediately dove for the remote, knocking Mike clear off the bed in the process, and quickly changed the channel. I did _not_ need to see that, thank you very much, and I sure as heck didn't want a bunch of kids who probably haven't even hit puberty yet seeing that filth either.

"Hey! What's the big idea, huh?" Mike whined from his position on the floor, "That channel looked interesting!"

"Trust me, you _don't_ want to watch that," I assured, "those channels are disturbing enough when they're showing _humans_."

I turned back to the TV and began to surf through the channels in Mike's place, since it was now evident I couldn't trust him with the remote. At the moment, all I was getting was a test pattern, so I promptly changed the channel.

CLICK!

"... Stocks were strong for Chaos Cola this week as..."

CLICK!

"... Previously on _As Mobius Turns_..."

CLICK!

"... And in the world of music, Catty Carlisle has just released her latest..."

CLICK!

"... Twelve finalists, and your votes decide their fate. This is _Mobian Idol_..."

CLICK!

"... Jet the Hawk placed first in the Extreme Gear World Prix yesterday as he..."

CLICK!

"... Looking for a night of fun? Check out the Carnival Night Zone, where..."

CLICK!

Apparently, there was one major similarity between Earth and Mobius: both never have anything good on TV. Disgruntled, I turned the boob tube off, much to Mike's and Andy's dismay, and looked for something else to do. The duo would eventually just leave to go check out the 'boring' pool some more (and probably drive anyone relaxing in it crazy). I, on the other hand, stumbled across a travel magazine that had a butt-load of information on stuff to do both within Station Square as well as out in the rest of Mobius. While it wasn't exactly the most exciting read, I poured over it anyway, getting a grasp on some of the activities we could do while we were here.

Hey, if we were gonna be stuck here for a while, with a ton of cash, no less, why not take the time to unwind? For once, we weren't forging for survival or trying to avoid Eggman; we could actually afford to live a little bit. Of course, I knew I couldn't let this get in the way of our ultimate goal of finding a way home, but we could take some time off to just _relax_, right?

At any rate, this kept me occupied until it was time to go to bed. Although I hadn't done anything strenuous the entire day, I quickly found myself drifting off into sleep as soon as I got under the covers.

* * *

_My eyes widened as I looked at the scene before me. From a distance, I had assumed the smoke was from a large bonfire, celebrating my return. After all, I had been away from the village for about a year, living in the fast lane in Station Square and spending whatever time off I had from my entry-level job to bask in the glitz and glamour of the city. It had been an incredible experience and it was hard to leave, but I promised my sister that I would return, at least for a little while. Even so, I spent the entire journey back dreaming about my new home and what exciting stories I had to tell everyone._

_However, as I got closer, it became shockingly clear: That smoke wasn't from a bonfire... The village _itself_ was on fire._

_"MOM! DAD! ASHLEY!" I screamed, running into the burning remains, trying to find those that I had loved._

_As I looked around the wreckage, I couldn't find any bodies, but I couldn't find any survivors, either. Had everyone fled to safety beforehand?_

_"H... Help... Help me..."_

_My sensitive ears immediately picked up the weak voice: It was my sister! I scanned around, but I couldn't find her. Desperate, I began to sniff the air, hoping to pick up her scent through the thick smoke. Thankfully, I managed to track it, leading me into a burning house... _My_ house._

_It was there, pinned under a fallen, burning log, that I found my sister. In an instant, I was beside her, pushing the log off of her. As soon as she was free, I hoisted her up into my arms and ran out of the house, and not a moment too soon. Almost immediately after we got out, it collapsed. My home... It was gone._

_"Ashe! Ashley!" I panted, cradling her in my arms, "Are you okay!? What happened!?"_

_"... Ugh... They... They came out of nowhere..." she panted, "Robots... They just started burning everything down and capturing the villagers... Mom and Dad... They were taken, too..."_

_I shuddered at my sister's description, since it clearly meant one thing: Robotnik. I had heard stories about him while in Station Square, but I never figured I'd have a close encounter with him... Until now._

_Suddenly, the sound of the crackling wood was pierced by a loud bang. Something gazed my right shoulder and then made a sickening 'THUD!' noise. At the same moment, I felt something warm and sticky splash across my face: blood. I looked down and saw my sister, now lying lifelessly in my arms, with a huge, gaping hole in her chest where a bullet had hit her._

_"NO!!! ASHLEY!!!" I cried, "PLEASE!!! NO!!! THIS CAN'T BE HAPPENING!!!"_

_But it was. Oh, how it was. My sister was now dead, shot while I held her in my arms._

_I fell to the ground, holding my sister close to me as I wept. My tears mixed with her blood as I gently laid her down on the ground, like I did after so many piggyback rides I had given her before I left, one final time. How could she be dead? Who could be so heartless as to shoot an innocent child?_

_I immediately looked to my right and saw a single, solitary robot holding a still smoking gun. Was he a straggler, or someone sent to make sure there weren't any more survivors? I didn't care. All I felt now was pure, unadulterated, rage._

_"YOU... KILLED... MY... SISTER!!!" I roared, lunging for the android. It began firing more shots. I felt the rounds tear through my flesh, but I couldn't be stopped. I was now as much of a monster as he was._

_The force at which I hit the robot alone was enough to disable it, but I didn't stop there. I began savagely tearing it apart, ripping its limbs off and shredding its wiring with my teeth._

_"I HATE YOU!!!" I yelled, even though the robot was far from being able to hear me, "I HATE YOU!!! IHATEYOUIHATEYOUIHATEYOU!!!"_

_Soon, all that remained of the robot was sprawled out around me, like it had fallen from a great distance and I was standing at the exact point of impact. In my hand was the robot's head, as dull and lifeless as my sister that he killed. Even in my rage, I knew that this droid was just a pawn. I knew who _really_ was responsible for my sister's death, as well as the destruction of my entire village and, ultimately, the end of my innocence._

_"DR. ROBOTNIK!!!" I screamed, my voice reverberating through the very air, "I SWEAR TO MY DYING BREATH THAT I WILL MAKE YOU PAY FOR THIS!!! I SWEAR!!!"_

I shot up in bed, panting heavily. The only other noise in the room came from my beeping alarm clock. Oh thank God... It was just a dream. It was another one of those weird dreams again, but a dream nonetheless.

I glanced over at the other bed, where Andy was still sleeping soundly, even through the blaring alarm clock. Mike and George were in the other room, and chances are they didn't even bother _setting_ the alarm. For now, it was just me that was awake.

I looked at the actual time on the clock. 7:00 AM. Well, there's breakfast in the lounge now, if I recalled correctly. I might as well get down there early and score a bite to eat before the kiddies come charging in en masse and wipe out the entire table of breakfast goods. I got out of bed, put my 'clothes' on (pretty much just the gloves, belt, and shoes... Gotta give a hand to furry fashion convenience), and began walking to the lounge.

As I made the trek, I thought over my little nightmare some more. Whatever it was, it was definitely a continuation of my previous 'flashback'. So now my dreams were telling me that my entire family's dead and/or roboticized and I have an understandably huge grudge against Eggman. Well, I know my _real_ family is fine (except for the fact that they've probably been freaking out for the past month over my disappearance), but I have to agree on the grudge with the doctor bit, what with the whole 'kidnap our friends and allegedly roboticize them' thing he did. Still, the whole thing was just plain unsettling. If I know these 'flashbacks' weren't true, then why was I getting them?

That's when another interesting thought then crossed my mind. The flashback I had seemed... familiar, but not from any personal experience. Then it hit me: Family dying in a fire... That's the oldest cliché in the book! How many times had I read a lame-o fanfic where the fancharacter lost their family in a fire caused by Eggman, making them vow to extract revenge on the doctor! Talk about overused! Talk about pathetic!

However, I thought back to my dream again. Like the previous one, it had seemed so _real_, regardless of the fact I knew it was false, and watching my sister die in my arms, regardless of if it was real or not or even if she was a flippin' furry or not, was one of the most terrifying things I had ever witnessed. Losing your family for real is no cliché; it isn't a stereotypical plotline that people would laugh at. I know _I_ would want to get revenge on whoever killed _my_ family, like I apparently did in that dream. And yet... Whenever we see it in a story or a game or anything else, we can't help but snicker. Maybe... Maybe I've been a little too hard on fanfics that use it.

Oh... Snap outta it! A bad fic is a bad fic, and having that as a backstory is usually the _least_ of the author's problems!

I finally reached the lounge of the hotel, which now had its breakfast selection out in full force. The hotel's lounge was really more of a buffet restaurant, offering appropriate meals depending on the time of day, but it also had a sports bar and a piano, not to mention a much more relaxed mood than your average eatery.

I helped myself to a bagel, some juice, and a pair of hard boiled eggs (uh... I hope Andy doesn't see me eating these...) and sat down to eat. I had gotten through about half of my bagel when I looked up and saw Liz sitting down next to me, a bowl of cereal in hand.

"Well, good morning," she greeted, "you're up awfully early. Doesn't Shaun usually have to wake you up?"

"Yeah, well, this time, I had an alarm clock," I replied, taking a sip of my juice, "I wanted to beat the kids down here before they ate everything up."

"Same here. I'm tempted to start a pool on how long until this hotel kicks us all out..."

I let out a quiet chuckle as I continued to eat. Soon, we were also joined by Cream and Cheese, who promptly made themselves comfortable at our table. Cream had two slices of toast and a cup of tea while Cheese was happily nibbling on a piece of fruit that was larger than his head.

"Hey there, Cream," I welcomed, "you enjoying your time here?"

"Yep!" she chirped, taking a bite out of a piece of toast, chewing, and swallowing before continuing, "Me and Ms. Elizabeth got to be roommates!"

"Chao! Chao!" Cheese added.

"I didn't want her to have to share a room with one of the boys," Liz explained, "I couldn't imagine that ending well in any fashion."

"Good point," I agreed, "so... What are you two gonna do today?"

"Well..." Liz began, holding up her big bag o' rings, "Since these rings came with a note asking that they'd be spent on 'supplies', Cream and I figured we'd do a little shopping. You want to join us?"

"Hmm... I guess I don't have anything better to do today," I shrugged, "sure, why not?"

It was when Liz and Cream began giggling happily and Cheese began to do a little dance in the air that I realized the huge mistake I just made. A mistake that would have worse consequences than even getting captured by Robotnik.

I had just agreed to go shopping with two girls.

God save me.


	10. Chapter 10

"Ms. Elizabeth! Look! This would look great on you!"

"Really? You think so, Cream?"

"Yep!"

"Hey, Matt, what to you think?"

"Zzz... Mph... Wha?..."

I snapped out of my partially-asleep state and glanced for a moment at Liz, who was now wearing a pearl necklace.

"Yeah, whatever, it looks great..." I mumbled, slowly drifting off again, "It's your money..."

I was promptly brought back to the realm of reality with a whack upside the head, courtesy of Liz.

"What!?" I sputtered, shaking whatever sense of drowsiness I had left out of my head, "I'm a guy! I don't know anything about jewelry!"

"You could at least _pretend_ you're interested!" Liz insisted, "Sheesh, boys..."

As the two girls turned back to their bling, I let out a low growl. We had spent the last _three freakin' hours_ in _one freakin' store _in Station Square's shopping district, and I was on the verge of going insane. At first, I stupidly figured the whole ordeal might not be so bad. After all, furries have fur (duh), so most of them use that alone as covering, like Sonic himself (and Sally in _SatAM_, much to the chagrin of a few conservative folks). If that's the case, then clothes shopping and such couldn't be that bad, right?

Wrong.

Turns out, women anthros sill like their clothes. Not only that, but things are actually _more_ complicated for them. It's not just a case of "Does this make me look fat?" anymore, oh no. Instead, while trudging through aisles and aisles of shirts, dresses, and jeans, I heard things such as "This dress totally clashes with my fur color!" and "I like these pants, but they were made for birds..." and other crazy things like that. Liz promptly followed suit, and I found myself having to carry numerous articles of clothing to the cashier and asking "Does this come in lizard sizes?" Eventually, Liz got a purple, low-cut tee and a pair of baggy jeans, Cream got a little light-blue dress, and I got an ulcer.

Next stop was the 'Accessories' section of the store. Apparently, this was where'd they keep things like the gloves and shoes and junk that Sonic characters wear. We spend a mercifully short amount of time in here, thank God, but the girls kept insisting on my opinion on whether or not this pair of gloves or that pair was better, to which I gave the oh-so-familiar reply of "Whichever one's cheaper." They ultimately decided to blow me off completely and get a little bit of everything. I had to admit, though, Cream _did_ look cute (in a little kid way, sickos!) wearing her accessories, which mostly consisted of two pink bows she had tied to each ear.

And then there was the cosmetics department.

I swear, if community showers are the first ring of Hell, then this was the second. Not only did poor, naive Cream get suckered into one of those 'Free Makeovers' they're always hawking at such places and eventually wound up looking like a furry Bratz doll (Liz quickly took her to the restroom to wash it all off, thank goodness), but one of the salespeople (salesanimal?) actually had the gall to try and sell cosmetic products to _me_!

I kid you not. Even I couldn't believe it.

"_Excuse_ me?" I remember saying, staring in disbelief at the cosmetics lady who addressed me.

"Well, if we can find the right foundation for you," the overly-enthusiastic cat in front of me continued, seemingly oblivious to my gaping mouth, "then a heavily-applied eyeliner would do wonders for your image! You would truly look like a vicious, yet fashionable, creature of the night!"

_Very_ awkward silence.

"Look..." I began, slowly backing away, "I appreciate your concern, but I think I'd rather not have to question my masculinity, thanks."

Without waiting for a reply, I ran off, trying to find Liz and Cream. Thankfully, they were still in the bathroom at this time, so I was the sole witness to this horrifying experience. Thank heaven; the last thing I needed was people knowing about _that_ exchange.

So let's review: I got dragged on a shopping trip with two girls, spent God knows how long convincing Liz that some random article of clothing matched her scales' texture, had to calm Cream down when a pair of shoes she loved didn't come in her size, and was told by a complete stranger that I should start wearing make-up.

Oh, and I had to carry all the bags, too.

While I continued to fume over the excruciating pain I had experienced in the past few hours (and Liz's general apathy towards it), I felt something land on my head. Looking up, I found myself eyeball-to-eyeball with Cheese.

"What? You bored too?" I asked.

"Chao! Chao! Chao chao chao!" Cheese barked at me, glaring.

"Huh? What's he saying?"

"I told him to keep an eye on you," Liz explained, not even looking away from the jewelry displays, "if you start dozing off again, he'll give that little ponytail of yours a sharp tug."

To prove his point, Cheese promptly grabbed my ponytail and started pulling on it gently.

"Oh great, so you're on their side, too?" I grumbled, "And you're not a dark chao... how?"

"Chao!" was all he said, grinning all the while. Jerk.

While I was busy being threatened by something one-tenth of my size, Liz showed Cream a pair of earrings.

"Hey Cream, I think these would look good on you, especially with that new dress you got!"

"Really?" Cream replied, "Thank you!... But Mother won't let me get pierced ears. She says they turn your ears green."

I let out a quiet snicker. While I never got that whole 'green ears' myth people always talk about when it comes to ear piercing, the thought of Cream with such was highly amusing.

"Oh..." Liz sighed, "Well, I certainly don't want you to disobey your mom."

"Hey, about that green ears thing," I joked, "I suppose _you_ wouldn't have to worry about that, right Liz? Heh heh..."

I was expecting her to either laugh or kick me in the balls (I was certainly hoping for the former). However, she did neither. Instead, she looked back at the earrings for a minute before simply walking off.

"Uh? Liz? Wait, it was a joke!"

"Chao..."

I felt Cheese grab my hair again.

"Hey, come on now, Cheese! I was trying to be funny!" I begged, "I mean, she already _has_ green ears, right? Being a lizard and all? So, I figured..."

YANK!

"GAH!" I shouted, my head snapping back as Cheese pulled on my ponytail, "Cream! Tell your chao to stop torturing me!"

"Cheese!" Cream ordered, "Stop hurting Mr. Mathew! It's not very nice!"

"Chao, chao..."

Cheese flew off my head, looking at me with a sad face as if to pander some sympathy from me. What a ham.

Ah well, it's hard to stay mad at something that looks so darn cute.

"Aw... Hey, Cheese, it's alright..." I forgave, patting him on the head, "Just listen to what Cream tells you and not Liz, okay?"

"Chao! Chao!"

A short while later Liz returned, and I immediately did a double take when I saw her. Now, hanging from her ears, was the pair of earrings she had shown to Cream

"Wait a second..." I stammered, "Liz, did you just..."

"Get my ears pierced? Yep," she answered, flicking one of the earrings and letting it swing back a forward, "they had one of those booths over there where they'd do it for free if you buy a pair of earrings. How do they look?"

I hadn't been paying much attention to the earrings when she was showing them to Cream (I was still busy glaring at the little blue ball of doom that was nesting on my head at that time), so I took a moment to look at them now. They were those dangly kind, made up of a 'chain' of small, sky-blue gems that went down to about her chin. Actually, they looked pretty good on her; the blue gems went nice with the color of her scales.

Hold on... Did I just actually judge how well to colors went together?

Okay, now I _know_ I've been hanging around with these two for waaaaay too long. Where's Nate or Shaun or any of the other kids when you needed them?

On second thought, I don't think I would want _any_ of them seeing me in this situation. It would probably do more _harm_ to my masculinity than good.

"Wow, they look beautiful on you, Ms. Elizabeth!" Cream gasped, quickly jarring me out of my thought process, "What do you think, Mr. Mathew?"

"Oh... Erm... They look great!" I complimented, smiling weakly and giving a pair of thumbs-up, "But... Uh... Why'd you do it?"

Liz just shrugged.

"Why not?"

Guys of the world, take note: I have seen women on a shopping trip, and it is _weird_.

* * *

I was glad to finally hear the noise of the city streets again instead of the horrendously awful elevator music that was playing inside the huge clothing store. As the three of us walked (and one flew) around, looking for another place to blow all our rings on, I took in all the sights and sounds surrounding me. Although I lived in a suburb growing up, we hardly ever went into the city when I was a kid. When we did, though, it was always a dazzlement to my senses. On one hand, the loud noises and not-so-pleasant smells often left me dazed and confused, but the sheer vastness of it all would simply leave me in awestruck wonderment. I usually preferred the country over the city, but I would still be amazed by it all if it was impressive enough.

Needless to say, Station Square was that kind of city.

I basked in everything my senses (now amplified from being a wolf) picked up: The sounds of cars driving by and radio music pouring out of store windows, the smells of hot dogs and pretzels being cooked by streetside vendors, the visual impact of staring at the top of a skyscraper you're right at the bottom of, the dull sense of pain as you drag about ten bags worth of junk for your 'friends' who are too lazy to carry them themselves... Well, okay, I am quite glad to admit that I'm making up that last one. Liz had the heart to actually let us stop by the hotel after visiting the department store so that we could drop off all the bags, freeing me from that last item on the list. Good thing, too: if we hadn't, I think my arms would've fallen off by now.

As it turns out, Station Square's shopping district was a good five-blocks-by-five-blocks smack-dab in the middle of the city. Furthermore, the way things were arranged in the district was a bit interesting. For some reason, all the stores were pretty much grouped together based on what they were selling, so all the clothing stores were in one place, all the electronics stores were in another, and all the restaurants were basically in a block-sized food court. It was convenient, I admit, but it just didn't seem like a good business strategy to me. I could picture the executives talking now: "Well, where should we put our new store?" "Gee, how about right with all the other stores that are exactly like it!" "Shouldn't we try to put it somewhere different, so there's less competition?" "Shut up! You don't know what you're talkin' about! My idea's brilliant!"

Okay... That's generally a good sign that you're thinking too much: Your internal monologue has multiple voices.

Where was I? Oh yeah, the shopping district... Anyway, while having everything together would logically make finding what you're looking for much easier, we were still having a hard time finding our way around. I guess that was because none of us thought about brining a _map_ along, leaving us to just blindly walk around and hope we'd run into what we were searching for. It wasn't a very good strategy, in case you couldn't tell.

"Hey, Matt," Liz asked, pointing around the corner, "you wanna see what's down this street?"

"Sure, why the heck not?" I sighed, "After what you dragged me through in that clothing store, I don't think _anything_ we could go in could possibly be worse."

Liz, Cream, and Cheese walked and/or flew around the corner. I quickly followed suit and discovered, much to my regret, that things _could_ get worse... _Much_ worse.

I suppose the first sign came before I even fully rounded the corner. My sensitive nose began picking up the combined smell of various perfumes, lotions, and soaps coming from the next street. However, I shook it off and turned to my right to see what was down this new avenue. What I saw terrified me. Seriously, no single ring of Hell could possibly hold what was here. This had to be at _least_ the third and forth rings combined, maybe even the fifth.

The entire street was made up of beauty salons and spas.

Liz and Cream had big smiles on their faces, I had a look on my face not unlike that of someone facing a firing squad.

"Okay, you know what?..." I began, slowly sneaking away, "I'm gonna go check out somewhere else now. If you need me..."

Liz immediately reached out and grabbed me by my ponytail, holding me in place.

Since when did my ponytail suddenly start shouting "Grab me!" anyway? First Cheese, now Liz... This could be a problem.

"Where are you going, Matt?" she asked slyly, "You agreed to stay with us the entire time, remember?"

Oh great... She actually was gonna drag me through this Hell-on-earth boulevard? That's it. All my manhood is gone. God, if you're listening, please kill me now.

As I was dragged down the street like a prisoner being taken to the gallows, I glanced into the shop windows, morbidly curious as to how furry beauty treatments differed from human ones. I didn't gather much from what was actually going on inside, but signs in the windows advertised such things as 'paw manicures/pedicures' (I guess your victims might as well see how fashionable your claws were before you slashed their throats with them), 'full body coloring and highlights' (so a leopard _can_ change his spots, then?), and 'fur waxing' (ow... Just... OW!!!).

Needless to say, my impression of this place wasn't going up any.

"Um, Liz..." I began absentmindedly, trying to think of something to talk about to divert my attention from the horrors surrounding me, "_Why_ are we here, exactly? You thinking about getting a haircut or something?"

It was when Liz turned and began glaring daggers at me that I realized my mistake: She was a _lizard_. She _had_ no hair.

"Oh... Right..." I muttered, realization hitting me like a 2-by-4.

I reflexively reached down and began guarding my crotch. After seeing what she did to poor Shaun (after _he_ brought up a quirk about her species, no less), I knew that look meant a shot to the 'nads was inevitable.

It's kinda funny, really. One minute, Liz is gleefully getting her girl on with Cream; the next, she's giving me such a stare-down that I resort to guarding my manhood. I was tempted sometimes to think that she might have been bi-polar or something, but when I look back, I know that wasn't the case. That was simply her personality: she loved her girly stuff as much as the next female, but she also could be as much of a tomboy as she wanted to be, and considering that she spent about 90 percent of her time around a huge group of _guys_, that happened to be a lot.

But I digress; let's go back to me hunching over to protect what I hold near and dear to me, shall we?

"Matt..." Liz grumbled, folding her arms and looking at me cowering in fear, "I'm not gonna kick you in the balls."

"Oh... Really?" I asked, slowly letting my guard down.

"Nah, I'd rather not humiliate you that much in public," she replied, giving me a little smile and turning back down the street, "I like ya too much."

Sometimes, I think she just glares at us like that to mess with our minds. Heaven knows it works.

Although the conversation ended with that (thank goodness), I noticed that she seemed a little sadder after my unintentional jibe at her. Even Cream caught it.

"Are you okay, Ms. Elizabeth?" Cream asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine... It's just that Mr. Tactful over there," she glanced at me with a playful smirk, "brought up a point I was kinda trying to ignore. Sigh... I guess us lizards can't get pampered much..."

She looked down at her scaly body, which, incredibly enough, was still rather chapped from that village fire so long ago (the real one, not that crazy dream one I had the pseudo-flashback about). I still remembered from before that time, when her scales were so shiny that they reflected the sunlight, but ever since that fire, they were dull and flaky. She never stuck me as the type concerned about their self-image, but I guess anyone would be a bit embarrassed if they were walking about looking like a bad sunburn victim all the time. The fact that none of the places offered any services to lizards probably didn't help matters, either.

However, as we continued to walk, we heard someone call out to us from one of the storefronts... Or, more specifically, Liz.

"Excuse me! Ms! Could I have a moment?"

I growled. Oh great, another salesperson. These people already got on my nerves even before I wound up on Mobius (granted, though, they never offered me cosmetics back then). For some mind-numbing reason, there was an unholy amount of them running kiosks in the middle of my local mall, selling everything from jewelry to those copyright-infringing '1000-in-1' game systems. The worst of the lot, however, were the ones selling hand lotions. They would call out to you and, if you did so much as look at them, they would drag you over to their little display center and start giving you about ten gazillion lotion samples. The thing I _really_ didn't get about them, however, was the fact that they gave the same pitch to both men and women. Seriously, is any guy _really_ gonna let some fruitcake rub lotion on their hands? I think not.

At any rate, Liz turned to face the person who was addressing her while I let out a sigh of relief that at least they weren't talking to _me_. That lady in the cosmetics department was enough, thanks.

The person talking to Liz was, much to my surprise, another female lizard. She seemed Asian in appearance and was wearing a kimono. I guess it made sense when considering where she was working, though: the store right behind her had a distinctive oriental motif to it.

"Forgive me," the sales... lizard?... apologized, bowing for a moment before continuing, "but I couldn't help but overhear your lament that there are very few places that offer services for lizards, is that correct?"

"Uh... I guess..." Liz shrugged, unsure as to where this was going, "I take it that you're an exception?"

"Precisely. Here at _Scales: A Reptile Spa_, we specialize in treatments specifically designed for reptiles, such as spine styling and scale exfoliation."

"Really? Well..." Liz pondered, once again looking down at her flaky scales, "I guess that might be good for me..."

Now, I don't know about you, but when the word 'exfoliation' shows up in a conversation, that's usually a good sign that I should withdraw from said conversation.

"Look, I'm sure whatever the heck you're talking about is fascinating..." I began, once more trying to back away, "But, you see, _I_ have no interest in such things for obvious reasons, so if you'll excuse me..."

However, Liz reached out and grabbed me again (this time by the arm instead of the ponytail, thankfully), holding me in place.

"Matt? Do you think this would be worth it?" she asked, pointing to the spa.

"How should I know!?" I protested, "I'm a guy!"

Liz let out an agitated groan before turning back to the other lizard.

"Okay, I'll do it."

"Very good. However..." the lizard replied, pointing specifically to Cream and Cheese, "No one under the age of thirteen is allowed in the spa."

I suddenly felt three pairs of eyes fall on me.

"I take it that means I have to take care of Cream and Cheese for a while?" I concluded.

"Yep..." Liz answered, "You don't mind, do you Cream?"

"Not at all, Ms. Elizabeth!" Cream assured, "I would love to spend some time with Mr. Mathew!"

"Chao! Chao!" Cheese agreed.

"You fine with it, Matt?"

"I guess I'll have to be..." I shrugged, "Don't worry about me taking care of them. You go do... Whatever you girls do in a spa. I dunno."

"Thanks," Liz answered, entering the spa, "see you guys in a little while!"

"Bye, Ms. Elizabeth!"

"Chao!"

"See ya!"

As soon as she was gone, Cream and Cheese turned to me.

"Where do you want to go, Mr. Mathew?"

I quickly grabbed Cream by the arm.

"I really don't care..." I replied, "... As long as it's NOT HERE!!!"

I blasted out of that nightmare of a city block at near max speed, abusing my power a bit too much and probably plowing over a few innocent bystanders in my mad dash outta there. It made little difference to me at the time, though: I was finally free from the ridiculous amount of estrogen that was practically oozing out of the stores and onto the street. Now, I could _finally_ look for some more manly things to blow my rings on.

As I slowed my pace back down (mostly to keep poor Cream's arm from getting ripped out of her socket), I took a look at my surroundings to see where I should go next. After all, the letter said that we were supposed to stock up on _supplies_ while we were here, and somehow I don't think _any_ of the things Liz and Cream brought thus far would qualify as such. While the temptation was great to walk over to the electronics stores to see what Mobius' equivalent to a Wii was, I knew there were a lot more important things to buy... But what, exactly?

Well, the letter said something about weapons, if I recalled correctly. Since I was pretty much defenseless (although one might argue that I was my _own_ weapon when I went psycho), I knew that was a problem I had to fix.

As luck would have it, we had just rounded a corner and found ourselves in the street that was devoted entirely to adventuring equipment which, yes, included weapons. Think _Cabela's_, only without the ridiculous amount of real estate those stores take up.

"Mr. Mathew?" Cream asked as I led her down the street, looking in the store windows to see what stuff they had on sale, "Why are we here?"

"Well, that letter said that we should use the rings to buy weapons, right?" I replied, "I think this is where one would do that."

"But... Weapons hurt people... Why would you want to hurt someone?"

"Chao, chao..." Cheese agreed.

I looked at the little rabbit, glancing up at me with an appearance of pure innocence. How was I going to explain this to her? Despite all the crazy adventures she's gone on, she still thinks this world is peaceful enough to avoid conflict? I _needed_ something to fight with, but Cream's innocent stare almost completely talked me out of it.

"Look, Cream..." I explained, putting a hand on her shoulder, "Remember how Sleet and Dingo almost killed us with that huge tank o' doom? The world isn't a safe place; you should know that from all that time you've spent with Sonic. That's why I need something to fight with, like how Amy uses her hammer, right?"

"Yes, but... Ms. Amy only uses her hammer to fight those nasty robots. The kind of weapons they have here are used to hurt _people_... To... To _kill_ them."

Cream hung her head low and began to sob quietly. For those of you keeping track at home, this is the _second_ time that I made Cream cry. I'm pretty sure Satan has a special spot reserved for me in Hell now; it probably looks just like that stupid hair salon street.

In all seriousness, though, I practically felt my heart break as I watched Cream choke up, Cheese flying right beside her to comfort her. Truth be told, part of the reason I _wanted_ a weapon was in an effort to hopefully _save_ some lives. I knew that it was only a matter of time before that animal within me would wind up killing someone, but I felt that it only came out in times of desperation, as if to keep to the old adage that an animal is most dangerous when it's cornered. However, most of those desperate moments came because I found myself unable to fight otherwise. Maybe, just maybe, if I had a weapon, I wouldn't feel as desperate, and thus I wouldn't give into my primal side. It sounds, crazy, I know, but maybe crazy enough to actually work.

However, I couldn't explain any of this to Cream. In her childhood-innocence she saw weapons only as things that ol' Eggman brought out to hurt everyone on Mobius. How could I explain to her that it was the lesser of two evils?

"Cream..." I vowed, getting on one knee to be eye-level with her, "I promise you that I will _never_ use a weapon to kill a person. Whatever I ultimately get my hands on I'll use like Amy uses her hammer: to smash robots and fend off would-be attackers. That's it. No lives will be lost at my hand."

"R... Really?"

"Yep. You have my word."

In reality, this was also a promise I made to myself, one that I was honestly terrified I might break. Even if could keep my bestial side in check, even if I used my weapon solely for self-defense, could I make it though all this without killing someone?

I certainly hoped I could, for both Cream's sake and mine.

"Well, now that that's settled," I began getting back up on my feet and trying to bring back a more upbeat attitude after that 'angst moment', "I won't be able to do much of anything if I don't get a weapon in the first place, right? Come one, Cream, let's go."

"Sure thing, Mr. Mathew!"

"Chao! Chao!"

Since any store seemed as good as the next, I simply picked one shop out at random and marched in. As we walked though the door, a simple bell over the doorframe chimed to announce our entrance, although, judging from all the workshop-like noise coming from the back of the store, I wondered if anyone heard it. At the moment, all I could hear was the sound of a buzz saw tearing through metal reverberating throughout the room; a none-too-pleasant noise, especially when you have super-sensitive ears. Eventually, though, the commotion stopped and I heard a voice come out from the back room.

"Uh... Hold on guys, I'm coming!"

A few moments later, the owner of the voice came through the back door into the main section of the store. Upon seeing him, I recognized who it was immediately. After all, there aren't many large, purple walruses that wear a yellow baseball cap and have a knack for mechanics/weaponry in the Sonic universe, now is there?

"Sorry for the holdup there," he apologized, adjusting his cap and cleaning his paw off with a rag before holding out to us, "the name's Rotor. How can I help you?"

**Author's Note: Originally, there was going to be more to this chapter, but I soon discovered that, between Matt's internal monologue and the sheer mass of stuff that was happening, I had to split the chapter in two 'cuz it was getting much too long. It's not a problem to me, but some of you might be looking foward to the next BIG ACTION SCENE since I've gone two chapters without one. I was hoping I could fit everything into this chapter since I have such a scene coming up after this, but that was not to be. Just sit tight; there's only one more chapter after this before things start to _really_ heat up! **


	11. Chapter 11

**Author's Note: Wow... Um... Sorry for the rediculously long delay. I have a ton of reasons for it, some of them understandable, some of them me being just plain lazy. School started, and I made the briliant decision to sign up for two AP classes, one of them being English. Let's just say that I spend more time now writing essays than I do writing fanfictions. That's my legitiment excuse. My "just plain lazy" excuses? Between _Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games_ and_ Super Mario Galaxy_, I think I'll probably never actually do anything productive for the rest of the year. Thank God _Brawl_ got pushed back to next year, or I think all semblance of life that I know would disappear.**

**There's something else, too, that's been keeping me busy for the past month or so: Role Playing. I recently joined both a Mario RP (it's my homepage now, what with the untimely death of the NSider Forums) as well as a Sonic RP. And for those of you who love my characters, here's some great news: Both Liz and Shaun are in that Sonic RP, while I'm planing on introducing Matt and Nate later! Their backstories are a little different there (since the RP forbate "characters from eath" histories), but they are otherwise very similar in behavior (kinda like Sonic himself in his eight different continuties). I can't give the link for it here, 'cuz Fanfiction is stupid, but you can find the RP if you just Google "sega sth rp". The only catch is that you gotta register before you can view anything, but if you can't get enough of my characters and want to read more about them in between updates, then it's worth checking out! Hey, maybe _you'll_ wanna join the RP, too!**

I couldn't believe it as I stood there, shaking Rotor's hand for the first time. Neither _SatAM_ nor the comics were exactly my forte, but I knew who Rotor was: the expert mechanic who whipped together everything the Freedom Fighters needed. While he wasn't a fighter, his brains certainly made up for lack of brawn. Who knows, maybe he'll help us out if I asked nicely or something.

Nah, better hold off... Beginning a conversation with, "Hi! Do you wanna join our group of rag-tag middle and/or high schoolers as we try to find some way to recover our human forms return to our own dimension?" just seemed... tacky, to say the least. Not to mention it would probably get me committed.

"Hey," I greeted instead, "nice to meet you, Rotor. I'm Matt... Matt the Wolf."

I promptly mentally kicked myself for doing that '(name) the (species)' thing again. I guess I was just a little disturbed that I was getting so used to being an animal that I was including it in my surname now.

At any rate, Rotor withdrew his handshake and glanced down at Cream and Cheese, who were standing right next to me.

"Oh, and that's Cream the Rabbit and Cheese the Chao," I introduced, "they're kinda under my care at the moment."

"Well, hi there!" Rotor welcomed, tipping his cap at the two.

"Hello, Mr. Rotor!" Cream answered, politely bowing, "It's a pleasure to meet you!"

"Chao! Chao!"

"Aw... Gee, thanks..." Rotor replied, blushing a little at Cream's excessive civility.

That was when I realized the interesting situation that was unfolding before me. Cream, as far as I could tell, had never met Rotor before. She never appeared in _SatAM_ for obvious reasons, and I don't think she's ever shown up in the comics (not that I would be the one who would know such things...). Therefore, this was the first time these two characters have ever interacted! I was hoping they would keep talking to each other just to see what would happen, but unfortunately, Rotor turned his attention back to me, seeing how it was pretty obvious that _I _was the one who was going be buying stuff, not Cream.

"So, Matt..." he asked, "What brings you here? Looking for something in particular?"

"Well... A group of friends and I have been traveling around a lot lately," I explained, "and we've seemed to have raised the ire of a certain Dr. Robotnik..."

"Yesh... Robotnik..."

I could've sworn I saw a scowl on Rotor's face for a second before he quickly calmed back down. I guess it was safe to say that he already had a bad encounter with him, what with him being a freedom fighter and all.

"Anyway," I continued, "he's been sending all sorts of robots and junk after us, so I've been thinking about getting something to defend myself with. Any suggestions?"

"Robots are tricky little buggers," Rotor began, leading the three of us further into the store, "for the most part, conventional weapons are pretty ineffective against them. You see..."

He pointed to a wall that had three sheets of metal hanging up on it. From left to right, they were labeled 'steal', 'titanium', and 'megatal'. The steal sheet was really beaten up, with bullet holes, burn marks, and huge slashes all over the thing. The titanium sheet looked much less worse for wear. It had a few minor burn marks, scratches and dents; only a few shots seemed to actually penetrate it. Whatever megatal was, it certainly was the strongest: it didn't look like there was any damage to it at all.

"... Robotnik likes to use different coverings depending on his robots," Rotor explicated, "he uses steal for his grunts, like the Egg Pawns. Anything can take 'em down really, like standard firearms," he pointed over to a gun rack on the opposite wall, "but besides for those robots, he rarely uses steal. Robotnik _really_ prefers titanium; that stuff requires serious firepower to do any real damage to it. Quite honestly, it's usually better to use whatever natural abilities you have against them as opposed to weapons, like the spin-dash."

I cringed a little bit thinking about what happened the _last time_ I used that move.

"And then there's megatal... For all intents and purposes, this stuff is _indestructible_. On the plus side, it's also pretty darn rare: Robotnik only uses this stuff on his most important robots. I can't imagine what you did to get the doctor's attention, but I'm sure it can't be bad enough to warrant him bringing out _those_ guys."

I took a quick glance at Cream, who was simply staring wide-eyed at Rotor as he explained everything while Cheese, apparently growing bored, took a nap on her head.

"You get any of that?" I asked.

"Uh..." Cream muttered, "I'm sorry, Mr. Mathew, but I don't think I did..."

I turned back to the walrus.

"Look, Rotor," I began, "thanks for the Metal Armor 101 lesson there, but I just need a really good weapon because, quite honestly, I stink at using my 'natural abilities'."

"I see... Well, how about a gun?" he suggested, "I've got a few in stock that can bust through titanium."

I looked back over at the gun rack. Granted, the stuff he had hanging there looked pretty darn powerful... Shotguns, magnums, some things that looked more sci-fi than real... but I'm sorry, I just couldn't see myself carrying a _gun_. Who do I look like, Shadow the Hedgehog!? Besides, considering the promise I made with Cream earlier, I doubt I could effectively use a gun as a _defensive_ weapon, unless I got one that was so flippin' big that it would just scare off any would-be attackers, but I doubt that logic could ever possibly work.

"Actually..." I elaborated, "I was thinking something more along the lines of a melee weapon, like a hammer or something..."

"Ah... I have a few of those over there," he pointed to the other side of the store, "but if you're _that_ interested in a weapon... Hold on for a moment..."

Rotor ran (yes, I don't quite get how a walrus can 'run' either) into the backroom again, leaving me, Cream, and Cheese a little confused as to what was going on. After a bit of commotion that could be heard from where we were standing, Rotor returned holding a...

... Holy shroom, he was holding a freakin' _sword_.

The blade was two feet long with a short, but decorated, gold hilt. The blade itself didn't have any fancy engravings or anything on it, but I'd be danged if it didn't look _sharp_. As Rotor handed it to me, I was able to pick it up easily in one hand and swing it around a bit... Out of the way of everyone else, of course.

"That was what I was working on when you came in," Rotor explained, "the blade itself is made out of megatal, so it's pretty much guaranteed not to break at any inconvenient times. Combine that with the sharpness of the blade, and you've got yourself a sword that can cut through the majority of the doctor's robots! Here, why don't you try it out?"

Rotor walked up to the wall and took down the sheet of titanium. He then led us to another part of the store that looked almost like an indoor shooting range (you know, the store didn't look this big from the outside!). He attached the metal to a stand at the far end of the room and then walked back to us.

"This is the section of the store where people can test out their weapons," he elucidated, "go on, try taking a swing at the titanium with that sword!"

I can't be the only one who was half-expecting him to say something like, "... By pressing the 'A' button!" right?

Anyway, I looked down at the sword in my hands and then looked back at my 'target'. This wasn't just using a Wiimote to take down some Yakuza thugs in _Red Steel_. This wasn't even messing around with that Master Sword replica I got off of Ebay for $120 to use in my Link Halloween costume. I was about to use a _real_ sword to inflict _real_ damage on something. This weapon in my hand... It wasn't a toy, it was the real thing.

Needless to say, I was a little nervous.

Regardless, I gripped the sword firmly in two hands (yes, it _was_ a one-handed blade, but I _really_ didn't want to accidentally let go), and charged towards the not-so-threatening piece of metal. With a mighty roar... that was completely unnecessary and probably just made me look like an idiot... I squeezed my eyes shut and brought the sword down on the titanium. There was the immediate sound of metal-on-metal, followed a few seconds afterwards by an odd creaking noise and a loud 'BANG!' After a few more moments of dead silence, I finally managed to pry one eye open and look at the destruction I had caused, and promptly had both eyeballs open as wide as they possibly could immediately thereafter.

The titanium... _and_ the stand... were completely cleaved in two; split clean in half and lying on the ground on either side of my blade, which was now partially embedded in the metal floor of the room itself.

Well, that confirms it: Best. Weapon. _Ever_.

I turned back to my colleagues, resting the sword stylishly on my shoulder. Cream's eyes were even bigger than normal (seriously, they took up about 9/10ths of her head at the moment), Cheese was flailing his arms around wildly while rapidly shrieking in his typical high-pitched chao speak, and Rotor had a smile that dwarfed even his huge tusks. Guess he was proud that his theory on megatal vs. titanium was true.

"So..." I began, finally breaking the silence, "How much?"

* * *

Rotor was so pleased that I helped him prove that his weapon was that powerful that he actually gave me a discount on it. Not that it helped a lot on the ol' bag of rings, though: the thing still cost 500 rings! The cost not only went towards the sword, however. Included in the deal was a nice scabbard, which conveniently (or eerily, depending on how you look at it), attached nicely to my belt, opposite my ring bag. 

"Alright, now remember," Rotor told me as I slid the sword into the sheath for the first time, "that megatal sword works great on titanium, but I'm not sure what would happen if you used it on something else that's megatal. They might just cancel each other out, so to speak."

"Ah, a sort of lightsaber-principle going on there?" I muttered absentmindedly.

"Huh?" Rotor inquired, "What are you talking about?"

"You know, that whole thing where a lightsaber can cut through anything except another light---"

I immediately paused when I realized an important key fact: there _was_ no _Star Wars_ in Sonic's world. Closest they ever got would probably be those _Chao in Space_ posters they had plastered everywhere in the newer games, and I doubt that movie resembled _Star Wars_ in any way, shape, or form.

"Uh... Never mind," I corrected, "It's a... Uh... Inside joke. Yeah."

I quickly thanked Rotor one last time and left the store with Cream in tow before I had to elaborate any further. Remembering that people on Mobius wouldn't understand pop-culture references was gonna be a little tough.

As we walked down the street, I began to feel my arm get sore. _Really_ sore. Rubbing it, I came to the realization that maybe the sword had a few drawbacks, like _tennis elbow_. Of course, it probably didn't help that I had just_ used it to slice a sheet of titanium clean in two_... I guess I would have to be a little bit more conservative when it came to swinging that thing around.

Remind me again: _how_ do anime characters swing humongous weapons around like there's nothing to it? There is something seriously wrong with the world when some whiny, angst-filled, spikey-haired, pretty boy can heave a half-ton sword around without getting tired and I have to ice my arm after using my sword _once_.

At any rate, now that I had a weapon, I started thinking about anything else we would need. Maps? Guide books? Camping gear? If we didn't know what we would be doing, how could I buy stuff to prepare for it? Maybe I should ask Liz.

Oh right, she's busy getting pampered or some---

"Hey! Matt! Cream! Over here!"

I whirled around and saw Liz waving at us from the street corner. Once she had gotten our attention, she ran up to greet us.

"Oh, hey there!" I welcomed, "Back so soon?"

"Well, I only got a basic treatment. I didn't want to spend all my rings on something too frivolous."

... Says the girl who bought ten bazillion things in that blasted department store...

"It's nice to see you again, Ms. Elizabeth!" Cream complimented, "You look beautiful!"

"Chao! Chao!"

Well, I had to admit, Cream was right. Liz was now wearing a kimono not unlike the one the other girl had, including a pair of wooden sandals. In her hands she was holding a shopping bag which, as far as I could tell, was where her old clothes were, and a woven basket full of all sorts of lotions and soaps (which were seriously irritating my sensitive nose, by the way).

Of course, all this paled in comparison to how _she_ looked, personally. I had no idea what she had done (and no intentions on finding out), but she was no longer flaky-looking, that's for sure. Instead, she now looked soft and smooth, at first glance not looking like she had scales at all. The shine was back, too: she had a glow about her that almost appeared angelic. Also, her 'Mohawk' was a little different, as the spines seemed to be flipped to the side now as opposed to sticking straight up. Just like Cream said, she looked beautiful. Heck, I'd say she looked _hot_.

OH, HECK NO! I did _not_ just say that an anthropomorphic lizard looked hot! I am _not_ a furry... Or a scaly... Or whatever...

Eventually, I forced down all romantic feelings and managed to choke out a "Yeah, you look nice!" before turning around and biting down on my fist. If this was an anime, I was sure I'd be having one of those fountain nosebleeds right about now.

"So, what have you three been up to while I was gone?" Liz asked, seemingly oblivious to my mental anguish (or possibly ignoring it), "Did you buy anything yet, Matt?"

After I managed to fully recover, I explained to Liz everything that had happened. How I went looking for a weapon, how we ran into Rotor the weapons shop owner, and how I wound up with something that could easily destroy Eggman's robots. It was hard to tell the story, though, as Liz kept interrupting me at every point along the way. Take, for instance, when I brought up Rotor. As soon as I mentioned his name, she nearly went bonkers with excitement.

"You met Rotor!?" she asked in disbelief, "You really met Rotor!?"

"Uh... Yeah..." I replied, unsure as to what can of worms I may have opened. I quickly found out as she grabbed me by the shoulders and began asking me all sorts of questions, unintentionally shaking me back and forward vigorously in the process.

"Was he wearing glasses, like in the comic? Did he ever mention Tommy the Turtle? How's his back?"

"What?... Who?... How?..." I sputtered in response, "I... I dunno... I didn't ask him anything!"

She immediately let go of me after I said this, causing me to lose my balance and fall down.

"_You didn't ask him anything?_" she gasped, "How could you not ask him anything! Matt, this was _the_ best time to find out about what's going on around here! He's one of Sonic's _friends_, for crying out loud!"

"Um... Ms. Elizabeth? What are you talking about?"

There was an awkward silence as we both turned to stare at Cream, who was looking at us inquisitively. In the mists of Liz's excitement, she must've forgotten that Cream was still there.

"Uh... Nothing," Liz bluffed, quickly pulling me back up to my feet and dusting me off, "I was just asking Matt a few... Personal things. Nothing you need to worry about."

The need to do some serious explaining to Cream averted, I was able to continue my story until the end without much more commentary... Until I showed Liz the weapon I bought. As I handed her the sword, she picked it up in both hands, looked it over, and glanced back at me with a look of discontent on her face.

"You got a sword," she flatly stated.

"Yeah..." I assured, raising an eyebrow, "Something wrong with that?"

"We're in a _modern_ world, where _robots_ are _shooting_ at us, and you bought a _sword_."

Long pause. How did this not hit me until now?

"Well..." I tired to protest (emphasis on the word 'try'), "... It looks cool!"

She handed the sword back to me.

"Whatever you say, Wolf Link."

"Wolf Link?" I repeated, "I don't get... HEY!!!"

I promptly stuck the sword back in my sheath and marched after Liz, who had already turned and began walking off. Cream and Cheese, probably as helplessly confused as ever as to what the flip either of us were talking about, took up the rear.

Seriously, leave it to Liz to make me feel bad about the weapon I chose. I knew what this thing was capable of: I cut a sheet of titanium in two with it! And Liz walks along and points out the one major flaw in my choice of weapon: a sword, no matter how cool and powerful, is still just a sword. What kind of idiot uses a sword when there're guns?

Well, _besides_ Cloud. And Squall. And every other male RPG protagonist out there. Somehow, I doubt using a game cliché as justification for my weapon choice was going to satisfy Liz. Oh well... Maybe, someway, somehow, I'll get a chance to prove to Liz that she should give my sword more credit. Maybe I'll save her from a robot with it or something, I dunno.

One thing's for sure, though: _Something_ better come up, or she'll _never_ let me live this one down.

* * *

The rest of the shopping trip went by without much incident. Liz constantly teased me both about my sword as well as my lack of questioning Rotor. Eventually, I broke down and promised I'd make it up to her somehow. 

"Look," I began, "the next time I run into a Freedom Fighter, I'll do whatever it takes to find out more about Sonic and company through them, okay?"

I would eventually end up regretting ever making that promise, but that wouldn't happen until much later. For now, let's just say it involves returning to that evil salon street of doom.

Scared yet? You should be.

But for now, all we did was window shop by a few more stores (while mercifully never actually going in any) before returning to the hotel. Nate and Shaun were in the lobby just hanging out, although judging by how wet Shaun looked, it was probably safe to say he had just come out of the pool. A few of the kids were there to, once again making the employees lives a nightmare by riding around on those things bellhops use to carry luggage, with said bellhop chasing after them, yelling the entire way.

Remind me again _how_ we didn't get thrown out yet?

"Hey, welcome back, guys," Nate greeted. He then looked at Liz and let out a wolf whistle (wait a second... Shouldn't _I_ be the one doing that?)

"Lookin' good, Liz..." he complimented, "You go to one of those spas, I take it?"

"How'd you know about that?" she asked.

"I was exploring the city a bit too while you guys were out. I passed by that street with all the beauty boutiques on it and saw the four of you there talking to some person outside one of the stores. I guess you didn't see me... Although, I must say, Matt, you had a look on your face like you got punched in the gut while you were standing there."

I let out a low growl. Great. Just great. So Nate saw me in that friggin' God-forsaken place. That's it, my ego was gone. Shattered. Broken into a million pieces. Let's just hope he didn't tell anyone else. If Mike somehow found out and began teasing me about it, I just might lapse into my bestial self again and maul him.

At this point, Shaun also walked up to us and noticed Liz's little transformation. His observations, though, were a little more... Unique.

"Hey, look!" he gasped, pointing at Liz in mock shock, "It's a Kimono Dragon!"

Silence.

"Aw, come on, don't you get it?" he elaborated, "Komodo Dragons are the world's biggest lizards... Kimonos are formal Japanese dresses... Kimono, komodo... It's a pun."

"Oh, we get it," Liz replied, sarcasm dripping in her voice, "we just don't think it's funny."

"Yeah, but... Sigh... Never mind..."

Shaun turned and moped off. Oh well, he'll get over it; he always does.

"And it looks like you got a weapon, eh?" Nate continued, motioning at the scabbard on my belt. I responded by pulling my sword out and showing it to him.

"A sword, huh? Looks pretty cool."

"Yeah," I agreed, "and it can cut through metal, too!"

Ha, Nate liked my sword. Eat it, Liz.

"Still..." the ferret pondered, "You think that's a wise weapon choice when everything we've encountered so far has tried to _shoot_ us?"

I swear I heard Liz trying to cover up a laugh. I was _so_ going to have to do something about this sword.

"I think it's a nice sword, Mr. Mathew..." Cream piped up.

"Chao! Chao!" Cheese agreed.

Well, at least _someone_ liked it, even if it _was_ a pair of pacifists who would probably break down into tears the minute I actually _used_ the thing.

At any rate, I put the weapon away and began making my way back to the hotel room.

"Hey, where are you going, mate?" Nate inquired.

"Back to my room," I answered, "shopping with those two and a pet chao is one of the most tiring experiences I have ever had."

"Tell me about it," Nate concurred, "I have three sisters, all of them shopaholics. Let's just say that if it wasn't for the Starbucks in our mall, I'd be screwed."

I let out a small chuckle and walked off. Nate and I had a lot in common, it seemed. Same views, same experiences...

... And now, by some force that was still beyond our understanding, same fate.

* * *

The next day started _very_ uneventful. I was awoken from sleep by the alarm clock again (this time, without any weird 'flashback' dreams), put my clothes on, and made my way out. Rather than visit the lounge, though, I decided to go to the lobby. I sat down on one of the sofas there and just watched the world pass me by. People were checking in and out, old friends were reuniting and chatting about this and that, and, best of all, no _certain_ _rambunctious kids_ were up yet causing all sorts of havoc. For me, it was just meant to be a time to relax and wake up a bit before going to eat breakfast. 

I wonder what I should do today? Maybe I should go shopping for supplies with Nate, since he probably knows much more about the stuff we need than Liz did. Or perhaps I'll go see what Shaun has planned. I haven't really hung out with him much, and the poor guy probably needs a bit more socializing than he currently has. Or I could just hang around here all day, it's not like anything exciting will hap---

_**BANG!!!**_

In an instant, I snapped out of my leisurely daydreaming and came crashing back into reality. Everyone in the lobby was screaming and dropping to the floor for cover. I, however, was too darn confused at the moment to be doing anything. Was... Was that _gunfire_!?

_**BANG! BANG!**_

Two more shots. By now, I also decided that the ground was probably the safest place to be, trying to avoid whatever was being fired from who knows where. In the middle of the terror, I risked a glance towards the front entrance, hoping that it would somehow be a pathway to freedom.

It wasn't, of course.

Charging through the doors were three masked guys carrying various different guns. I couldn't make out their features much, but they all seemed to be of the same species. One of them stood by the entrance to keep watch, while the other two began running around, grabbing people, and forcing them to stand in a line. It wasn't long before one of them walked over to me and yanked me to my feet by my tail and threw me over with the rest of the hostages.

While I was standing there, I noticed a fourth member of the group standing in the middle of the lobby, presumably their leader. Judging by how he was holding a still-smoking revolver to the ceiling, it was safe to say that he was the one who fired the three shots to begin with. Like his cronies, he had his face covered, but he was also wearing a fedora. In fact, he almost looked... _familiar_...

"Alright! Nobody move if you value your lives!" he shouted, twirling the gun around on his finger, "This is a robbery!"


End file.
